Craig appeals costs and they go up from $5,000 to $60,000

Cameron Slater blogs:

You may recall that I had Colin Craig’s vexatious copyright claim over his dopey poem struck out. …

The judge awarded a fraction of costs, according to the schedule. Colin Craig then asked the judge to revisit the costs award as he thought they were too high, despite being a fraction of the actual costs. …

Colin Craig’s application to reduce around $5,000 in costs awards further has just ended up costing him $32,593.27 in my case and a further $27,938.75 for Jordan Williams.

My God, that is an impressive own goal. You appeal against costs of $5,000 and you end up with costs of over $60,000.

Judge Sharp spares few words in relation to the claim. They include:

• a proceeding involving a deception on the Court
• the processes of the Court had not been fairly or honestly used
• being employed for an ulterior and improper purpose
• proceeding to be manifestly groundless and without foundation
• plaintiff acted vexatiously in continuing this proceeding
• plaintiff acted improperly in defending the summary judgment and strike out applications
• he had been put on notice about the implications of losing
• the process was not fairly or honestly brought, it was manifestly groundless and without foundation
• Mr Craig conducted the proceeding in such a way as to require a good many, otherwise, unnecessary attendances and memoranda to the Court from the defendants

It is hard to conceive of more damning words that a Judge could use. Also hard to think of a worse outcome than appealing against $5,000 costs and ending up escalating it to $60,000.