8. How do I formally object to an inflated or unreasonable Bill of Costs served by the winning party?

8. How do I formally object to an inflated or unreasonable Bill of Costs served by the winning party? 

When the receiving party serves you with a Notice of Commencement of Taxation and a Bill of Costs, standard directions require you to file and serve a List of Objections within 28 days after service of the Notice of Commencement of Taxation. This document must be in the approved format, detailing each item disputed, the specific grounds for reduction or disallowance, and your proposed reasonable amounts. If you fail to serve a List of Objections within 28 days, the receiving party may apply to the court to have the bill taxed as drawn. 

For bills where the amount claimed is $200,000 or below, provisional taxation on paper is assigned to a Chief Judicial Clerk. For bills exceeding $200,000, paper provisional taxation is conducted by a taxing master. In either case, the taxing officer also retains discretion to bypass paper taxation and set the matter down directly for an oral hearing if there is “good reason”. 

Following a provisional taxation on paper, the taxing officer issues a costs order nisi. This order nisi automatically becomes absolute 14 days after it is made (not 14 days from service) unless a party applies for an oral taxation hearing within that 14-day window. However, if you insist on an oral hearing and fail to obtain a materially better result (i.e., a material reduction in the allowed costs), the taxing master may order you to pay the costs of that hearing.