Tribunal Refuses Costs Application From Broker Cleared Of Market Abuse

Joanna Gray, Newcastle University

In and of itself a refusal by the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal to award costs against the FSA in favour of an applicant to it whom it had earlier cleared of wrongdoing is not especially noteworthy. However in the decision of the Tribunal in (1) Timothy Edward Baldwin (2) WRT Investments Ltd v FSA (Case No FIN/2005/0011) on 5 April 2006 it gave a reasoned decision on the determination of the applicants’ request that the FSA be awarded to pay the applicants’ costs following its earlier ruling in January 2006 in when it cleared him of the allegation of market abuse made against him by FSA and, in the course of this more recent decision the Tribunal made some interesting observations about the existence and exercise of its discretion to award costs in favour of either party involved in a reference to it.