i recently won a civil action in the circuit court as a lay litigant, likely costs?

[zepplin]

hi

i recently won a civil action in the circuit court as a lay litigant. The judge awarded costs to me for the district and circuit court.

there were no experts (engineers etc.) involved so no associated costs

Apart from the cost of summons, declaration of service, reg post etc. for both courts can I claim extra costs e.g loss of a days work?

 

[a lawyer]

fair play to you for litigating this yourself (officially i'm outraged of course)

i think you probably have the correct inclination there with the loss of a work day(s) approach. you could hardly call this an "extra cost" - it was clearly a cost. if you used holiday allowance that's a day's holiday you don't have (if you see what I mean). if you are self employed then your accounts should show the average days income.

you can't claim a "professional fee" equivalent to what the other side would have gone down for if you had legal representation - you didn't use a "professional".

I'd imagine you presumably gave evidence yourself so you might actually recoup your expenses as a "witness expense". hard to see why you wouldn't be entitled to your own reasonable expenses therefore. you'd also be entitled to have had a bite to eat , perhaps a cup of coffee to keep you alert, and to some travel allowance for the particular days.