Various Claimants v MGN Ltd

This is my judgement arising from a hearing that took place on 8 and 9 May 2018 dealing with aspects of costs and costs management in the 2nd Wave of the Mirror Newspapers Hacking Litigation (“MNHL”). The MNHL is not the subject of a Group Litigation Order under CPR 19.10 to 19.15 but its structure is similar. One notable similarity is that each wave has a register of claimants and there are agreed procedures for removing a claimant from the register where an individual claim is settled. Mann J is the managing judge designated by the Chancellor to deal with the litigation.

A structure has been created to deal with the costs of the 2nd Wave of MNHL and it will be necessary to refer to parts of it in detail. The following is a brief summary:

The order dated 9 July 2015, in a similar way to a GLO, distinguishes between “Individual Costs” and “Common Costs” (these are defined terms). The costs of the litigation fall to be allocated between those two areas and, in the event of doubt, allocation is to be dealt with by the court.

The order dated 16 May 2016 set up a system for costs management by the application of Template Costs Budgets that were to follow, as far as possible, the layout of Precedent H. The template system applies not only to Individual Costs but also to Common Costs. It was a way of avoiding the need for the court to undertake multiple costs management hearings in similar claims.

There are three categories of template for Individual Costs; A, B and C. For present purposes, the distinction between them does not matter. It suffices to note that the two claims in relation to which the court is asked to undertake a more detailed costs budgeting exercise, Leslie and Houghton, were Template C cases, meaning cases in which there is at least one admission of the misuse of private information and the number of articles complained about exceeds 20.