You can win your case and still lose your costs. A High Court judge has just shown how.

In a judicial review brought on behalf of a disabled child, Mr Justice Fordham dealt with a council whose solicitor had missed court deadlines. The council then served hundreds of pages the night before and the morning of the hearing. The claimant was representing herself and had complied with every direction. The judge said she had been put in an "intolerable position".

He barred the council from relying on the late material. He also ordered that it could not recover the cost of preparing it, or of the hearing, whoever eventually won the case.

The point for anyone paying legal fees: costs depend on how a case is conducted, not only on who wins. When a judge disallows costs because of a firm's poor conduct, a client should not be paying for that work through the back door. Check that your solicitor's bill doesn't include time spent on work the court has disallowed, or on fixing the firm's own delays.

No costs for solicitor who left LiP in “intolerable position” - Legal Futures