A JUDGE has rejected changes to a court order that would have potentially saved the RSPCA tens of thousands of pounds in legal fees.

The animal charity has lost a legal argument over the seven-figure costs incurred in its battle with university lecturer Dr Christine Gill.

Dr Gill has already overturned the will of her mother, which bequeathed Potto Carr Farm, near Northallerton, North Yorkshire, to the charity.

Judge James Allen has also ordered the RSPCA to pay the majority of the £1.3m costs incurred by both parties.

The RSPCA’s legal team had argued for the judge’s order to be altered to reduce its share of the costs burden. However, the judge rejected the argument.

Although the breakdown of the costs is still not known, it is understood the ruling will add to the RSPCA’s potential bill of about £1m. The charity must now hand over an interim payment of £100,000 to Dr Gill’s legal team.

The Leeds University lecturer said last night she was pleased with the latest judgement in the three-year legal row.

She said her lawyers, Mark Keenan and Tracy Angus, were more like family now because of the time they had spent together.

The RSPCA will now decide whether to appeal against the original ruling that overturned the will.

The charity said: “We have to fully consider the costs judgement handed down and are therefore not in a position to comment further.”

Mother-of-one Dr Gill took the charity to court after she found the £2m farm had been left the charity in the will of her mother, Joyce Gill, who died in August 2006, aged 82.

She had signed a mirror will with her husband, John Arthur Gill, 13 years before her death.

The document meant that when one of them died, the farm and all their savings passed to the other. When both were dead, the farm would go to the RSPCA.