Fiona Horlick KC and Oliver Powell KC secure £494k costs order 

Fiona Horlick KC and Oliver Powell KC successfully argued for a costs order in the sum of £494,024.18 for the CEO of a care home provider.

Background: Between 2016 and 2017, 5 service users, who were residents at two care homes owned by a care provider, passed away. It was the Crown’s case that the care home provider failed to discharge a duty under s.3 HSWA 1974 on 5 occasions, and that the CEO had consented or connived in the commission of those offences, or that the alleged offences were attributable to his neglect. From the outset of the investigation, the CEO vehemently refuted the allegations, and the matter was listed for a 10-week trial at Teesside Crown Court.

Prior to trial, Fiona and Oliver prepared detailed written submissions addressing, inter alia, the way the disclosure exercise had been undertaken, and the admissibility of expert evidence relied upon by the Crown. Following receipt of the various submissions by the defendant parties, the Crown applied to adjourn the proceedings to resolve the extant disclosure issues and to instruct a new expert witness. The application was robustly opposed by all defendants. Handing down a 21-page judgment, HHJ Carroll refused the application to adjourn, following which the Crown offered no evidence against all defendants.

After an all-day cost hearing on 10 March 2025, HHJ Carroll handed down a 13-page costs judgment on 26 March 2025. He made a cost order in favour of the CEO in the sum of £494,024.18 and a further cost order in favour of a fellow company officer in the sum of £190,372.80, thereby taking cost orders in favour of the two statutory directors to £684,396.98.

This matter was followed by another H&S case in which HHJ Everett, sitting at Chester Crown Court, ordered the HSE to pay defence costs in the sum of £587k following the mid-trial collapse of the prosecution case.

Cases such as these are a salutary reminder to prosecutors of the need to have an evidential appreciation of material relied upon and, in the first case, further underscore the importance of proper disclosure.

Find out more

To instruct Fiona Horlick KC and/or Oliver Powell KC or find out more about either of them, please contact Andy Hunter on +44 (0)20 7427 4905 for a confidential discussion.

News 21 May, 2025