A brief history of costs

A brief history of legal costs

In olden times, a notice of intention to tax was referred to as “a declaration of costs” and was served on the attorney of the party who was condemned to pay the costs. It was a document prepared by the attorney and comprised a summary of the case, a specified account of the costs which were to be taxed and the ‘na-kosten’ which relate to the costs involved in the taxation. The attorney of the party condemned to pay the costs may challenge the various items of costs claimed in the declaration in the ‘diminutie’ (now referred to as objections) which was a similar sort of document as the declaration and contained the arguments on which the items were challenged. The attorney of the successful party then dealt with these arguments in a ‘contra-diminutie’ (now referred to as the replies to objections). The taxation was then done by the Court, or commissioners ordained by the Court to do the taxation (the Taxing Master), on these documents. The party who was aggrieved with the taxation had a right of ‘rivisie’ (now known as a review)

(The original paragraph is from the judgment of Galgut AJA in Bills of Costs (Pty) Ltd and Another v the Registrar, Cape, NO and Another 1979 (3) SA 925 (A))