Carruthers Law

Magical Marking Ltd & Anor v Ware & Kay LLP & Anor [2013]

May 16, 2013

Magical Marking Ltd & Anor v Ware & Kay LLP & Anor [2013] EWHC 636 (Ch) is a professional negligence claim brought by the Claimant against its solicitors. The allegation of negligence was that the solicitors had failed to advise correctly that it would be unfairly prejudicial to remove a director without making a fair offer for his shares.

If the correct advice had been given the client would have settled the directors subsequent unfair prejudice petition much earlier.  The loss therefore was the additional costs paid to the director incurred as a result of the delay in settling the claim.

The loss was valued by the court at £28,000.  In fact, damages claimed had been in excess of £10m. The costs after a three week trial were enormous.  In fact because the Claimant had only been successful as to a small amount of its claim and recovered only 1% of the total the Defendant were held to be the successful party.

It is therefore the case that you are not necessarily going to recover all your costs or any of the costs even if successful in obtaining an award.  In this particular case the Claimant had amended his case at the very last minute and as a consequence of that amendment recovered the amount.  It was therefore the case that the defendant was entitled to its costs incurred up until the making of the amendment. Costs will not necessarily follow the award made.