Legal Update: Court Report - Council appeals against costs order

Case name: S (A Child)

Case number: 2015 UKSC20

Location: Supreme Court

Judges: Lady Hale (deputy president), Lord Kerr, Lord Wilson, Lord Hughes and Lord Toulson

The case was an appeal by a local authority in relation to a costs order made against the authority. The father of a young girl had appealed against a placement order obtained by a local authority for the girl's adoption, without her father's consent. The Court of Appeal ordered the local authority to pay the father's costs of the appeal, in which he had been successful. In bringing the appeal, the father incurred legal costs assessed at £13,787. The Court of Appeal ordered that the local authority should pay those costs because it had resisted the appeal, and in order not to deter a parent from challenging decisions which impact on the relationship with their children. The issue in this case was whether the Court of Appeal was right in deciding to order costs against the local authority, given the principle confirmed by the Supreme Court in In re T (Care Proceedings: costs) (2012) UKSC 36 that in general, local authorities should not be ordered to pay costs in care proceedings.