The SCCO have given some useful guidance about how the Court should treat costs estimates where there is a difference of 20% or more between the base costs claimed and the costs shown in an estimate of costs.

In Prodec Networks Limited v N2Check Limited the Court suggested that four factors the Court ought to take into account in deciding the effect which reliance on an estimate should have on the amount of costs are as follows:-

1. The extent or degree of reliance
2. The consequenses of that reliance
3. The explanation, if any, given for any excess of costs over the sum estimated
4. The extent to which the estimate has been exceeded.

The judgment gives some useful guidance as to how estimates are to be treated and emphasizes the need to prepare them accurately and to serve revised estimates if previous ones are inadequate.