What are costs?
The Environment Court may order any party to pay money to another party, or to the Crown, to help offset expenses incurred in a hearing. For example, an appellant may have to pay an applicant or the council a sum of money.
The Court only awards costs where a party applies for them. The RMA sets out that an Environment Judge sitting alone can make an order that costs be paid. The Environment Court is given the discretion to decide whether it is reasonable to impose costs and the amount that is appropriate.
Awarding costs
There are two bases for awarding costs:
- Full costs - where a party is awarded the full cost incurred. For instance you may be ordered to pay solicitor's bills for the other party (known as solicitor and clients' costs). This is unusual but may be ordered where a party fails to comply with a Court Order, acts in contempt of the Court, or in other exceptional circumstances.
- Reasonable costs - this is more common. The Court makes an assessment of reasonable costs based on the circumstances of the case. This sum is paid by one party to the other. This will not be full cost recovery but may cover some expenses including:
- payments to lawyers and other representatives
- payments to expert witnesses
- fees charged by the Environment Court for lodging an appeal
- disbursements, for example, toll calls, faxes, photocopying
- travel expenses to witnesses and lawyers.
Costs cannot be awarded to compensate an applicant for delays in processing development proposals or for the expenses of applying for resource consent. Costs will not be awarded to compensate for personal time spent on preparing for and participating in a hearing.
