Costs

It was settled law that the court would generally not exercise its discretion under CPR 25 to make an order for security of the costs of a claim if the same issues arose on the claim and counterclaim and the costs incurred in defending that claim would also be incurred in prosecuting the counterclaim.
There were two exceptions: (i) where the claim raised substantial factual inquiries which were not the subject of the counterclaim, an order for security might be appropriate notwistanding the fact that the claim provided a defence to the counterclaim; in which case an order for security would normally be limited to the costs of addressing additional issues raised only by the claim; and (ii) where the claim and counterclaim raised additional issues, it might also be relevant to consider whether the quantum of the claim in respect of which security was sought was substantially greater than the applicant’s claim.