Litigant in person - huge court costs filed by defendants.

[brinthegrin]

Hi all,

I'm due to attend a costs and case management hearing at the High Court, Chancery Division in a fortnight and have just received the estimated costs from the Defendant's solicitor, the case is regarding an invalid/forged will. I have already paid over £5000.00 for costs awarded against me due to a mistake by my solicitor, and following this I decided that I would continue with my claim as a litigant in person. The estimated costs the defendants' solicitor has quoted is £66,500.00. This seems an incredible amount of money and nowhere near any quotes I received while I was seeking a solicitor. Does anyone have any idea if this is the norm, or is it yet another tactic to frighten me into stopping my claim? Any info is much appreciated!

[R0b]

Only a judge can tell you that. For a case management hearing that sounds like it's on the extreme end but an estimated cost for the whole of the case including the hearing then that might be a reasonable amount or not far from it. I'm afraid once you starting playing with the big boys in the High Court, costs can get very expensive very quickly.

The difficulty for you is that you are now representing yourself against the other side who will have the necessary experience for the case and so you are likely to be disadvantaged from the start. If you think these costs are absurdly high, raise it to the judge and explain your concerns.