Council fights “excessive” £550,000 costs bill for lost judicial review

Law firm Neumans is embroiled in a dispute with Newport City Council over the costs of a judicial review, which the council lost.

Newport leader Matthew Evans said the council had been billed £550,000 by Neumans – which he called “an abuse of public funds” -  and had instead offered £200,000.

The row arose over a judicial review taken by the Newport Taxi Drivers’ Association. It objected to a council plan to introduce restrictions on the age of vehicles used as taxis in the city, and won the judicial review last November.

Evans said the council believed Neumans’ actual costs were around £100,000, plus a 100% ‘uplift’ because the case was taken on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis. He said the claim for a100% uplift was “an indication that the council had a strong case and the risk taken by the taxi drivers’ lawyers was very high”.

Evans said: “I am outraged at the amount being claimed which is clearly excessive and an abuse of public funds. All the money would go to the lawyers in London.”

If Neumans refused the £200,000 offer, the council would “insist on the matter going back before the court for a detailed assessment hearing and we will contest the remainder of their bill on the basis that it is excessive”, Evans said.

But a Neumans spokesman said the case could have been settled at little cost had the council accepted an invitation to go to mediation. “Neumans tried their hardest to settle this matter without a court hearing,” he said. “Attempts (on more than one occasion) were made to mediate with Newport City Council however [it] did not reciprocate. Newport City Council should themselves examine why they refused all offers of mediation and why they did not reciprocate in attempting to settle this matter without having to go to court.”

Neumans argued that this had been a high-stakes case because the restrictions on vehicle ages - intended as a safety measure – would have put many drivers’ livelihoods at risk.

The firm said it “risked a large amount of resources” on the case including having between two and four people at work on it for five months. “The taxi drivers lost on the initial paper application and this meant an uphill struggle with increased risks thereafter,” the spokesman said.

Costs were still to be agreed by the parties and no figure has been finalised, he added.

Newport said it had sought to impose the restrictions because of concern among residents and some taxi operators, about “the growing number of ageing vehicles on our roads, which are subject to extremely high-usage and mileage in a urban, city environment”.