39 Essex Chambers

Peter Hurst LLB MPhil ACIArb was the Senior Costs Judge of England & Wales, at the Royal Courts of Justice, from 1992 to 2014. During a judicial career which has spanned thirty years, he was also Judicial Taxing Officer of the House of Lords from 2002 to 2009 and of the United Kingdom Supreme Court from 2009 to 2014 and also of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council from 2002 to 2014. He sat not only as a costs judge in the SCCO but also as a recorder in civil and criminal matters, including costs appeals from District Judges. He was appointed Greffier substitute of the Royal Court of Jersey in 2005. He was elected an honorary Bencher of Gray’s Inn in 2007. He sat as an assessor with High Court Judges dealing with numerous costs appeals. He was invited to sit with the Court of Appeal as an assessor when that Court was dealing with difficult or complex costs appeals. He worked closely with Lord Woolf on the Access to Justice Reforms and was an assessor to Lord Justice Jackson’s Review of Costs and visited several overseas Jurisdictions in that capacity. He has been heavily involved in the implementation process with Lord Justice Jackson and Mr Justice Ramsay both in the CPRC and with MoJ officials. He chaired the sub-committee charged with redrafting the costs rules and practice directions.

He has lectured frequently at costs conferences and seminars including at the Westminster Legal Policy Forum, University College London and at Clare College Cambridge.

Member of the Expert Witness Institute; Expert Witness Institute 2014 – Accredited mediator.