Martin Sheard and Steven Barker were successful on a recent application for the costs of a trial for wrongful dismissal.

Martin and Steven successfully represented the plaintiff at trial and were now applying to Court for an order that the defendant, and its trial counsel, pay the plaintiff the costs of trial.

In the result, the Court ordered that the defendant had to pay costs on an elevated scale. This means that the costs that the defendant had to pay to the plaintiff were calculated on a scale that was higher than the scale normally used to calculate costs.

The Court found that: “the manner in which the defendant conducted this litigation turned a matter of ordinary difficulty into one of more than ordinary difficulty”.

The Court also ordered that the defendant’s trial counsel, who came from a different firm, should be personally liable for part of the defendant’s costs as he “caused costs to be incurred without reasonable cause through delay and neglect”. It is rare for the Court to award costs against counsel in this fashion.

If you believe that you have been wrongfully dismissed you should contact the experienced lawyers at TGC.

Read about the ruling: https://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcsc/doc/2017/2017bcsc1729/2017bcsc1729.html?autocompleteStr=davies%20shin&autocompletePos=3

| Steven Barker