We are pleased to welcome to the team our newest recruit, James Wilson, who joins us as a trainee.
The New Law Journal in partnership with LSLA has published their Litigation Trends Survey into the effects of the Jackson Reforms seven months in.
The survey paints a gloomy picture of the impact of many of the key tenets of Lord Justice Jackson’s reforms. Some notable outakes….
On budgeting
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A significant 69% of respondents thought that budgeting would increase costs with just a fifth (21%) believing costs would go down.
“Budgeting is likely to result in a massive amount of satellite litigation. In litigation other than commodity and factory litigation, ie litigation with any degree of complexity or unpredictability, the likelihood is that budgets will be so hedged around with assumptions that they become worthless.”
On proportionality
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There are … serious misgivings about the implication that small and medium sized cases are generally less complex than higher value disputes.
“The difficulty is that it is naive to the point of being facile to suggest that because a case is small it is therefore easy. In fact, the reverse may well be the case because transactions involving large sums of money or valuable property are that much more likely to have been considered at the time of the transaction by lawyers on both sides. Smaller transactions are [not] as likely to have involved lawyers.”
On disclosure
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Serious question marks still exist as to whether all parties to a dispute will share a sufficiently close common desire to limit the scope of disclosure.
“We do not think the new disclosure regime will decrease costs. If anything it will increase them”
Overall
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It is abundantly clear … that litigation lawyers, while acknowledging the need for a shake-up of the civil justice system, have deep-rooted concerns regarding how the central themes of the Jackson reforms will play out in practice.
“Both Woolf and Jackson have increased (and accelerated) the overall cost of litigation and that overall cost will have the effect of reducing, not increasing, access to justice.”
Read the full survey.
The Ministry of Justice has published the draft Damages-Based Agreements Regulations 2013, which come into force on 1st April 2013.
The draft Regulations make it clear that, save in respect of employment matters, the payment from a client’s damages shall be the sum agreed to be paid (capped at 25% in personal injury cases and 50% in any other claim or proceedings to which the Regulations apply) net of any costs (including fixed costs) payable to the representative by another party in the proceedings. Counsel’s fees are within the cap in all cases, save for employment matters.
This MoJ is seeking views on implementing a package of Lord Justice Jackson’s proposals for reforming conditional fee agreements and other aspects of civil litigation funding and costs.
The consultation closes on Monday 14 February 2011
The Civil Justice Council’s Costs Committee have launched their survey into guideline hourly rates.
The participation of “every law firm in England and Wales” is encouraged to ensure that the evidence base is as comprehensive as possible. The survey is available for completion until 29 November. Chair of the Committee, Mr Justice Foskett, has urged firms not to ignore the survey, speaking on Litigation Futures….
“The objective is to create as accurate a picture as possible of salaries and hours charged (and amounts recovered) for all fee-earners, from trainees to senior partners nationwide….
“In a busy world it is always tempting to ignore a survey or questionnaire. However, we have tried very hard to keep the survey short and clear, with questions that can be answered by reference to a firm’s most recent annual report and accounts together with its costs management system.
“My message to all firms engaged in litigation is that this is a real opportunity to contribute to an exercise designed to provide a reliable evidence base upon which to make our recommendations. Criticising the outcome will be somewhat hollow if the critic has not completed the survey.
“My final plea, therefore, to all litigation solicitors is this: don’t ignore it.”
Find the survey here.
The Ministry of Justice has published the draft Conditional Fee Agreements Order 2013, which comes into force on 1st April 2013. Transitional provisions have been included to make clear that the 25% cap on the success fee that lawyers can take from personal injury clients’ damages, excluding those for future care and loss, does not apply to CFAs entered into before 1st April, but only if:
(a) the agreement was entered into specifically for the purposes of the provision to a person (“P”) of advocacy or litigation services in connection with the matter which is the subject of the proceedings; or
(b) advocacy or litigation services were provided to P under the agreement in connection with those proceedings before that date.
We are pleased to announce a new member to the team, Tom Winyard. Tom has been the costs manager of a well established law firm for the past 10 years and brings with him an extensive knowledge and experience of all civil litigation matters. He is a Fellow of the Association of Law Costs Draftsman and shortly anticipates becoming a full Costs Lawyer.
The committee reviewing the guideline hourly rates – which were last increased in 2010 – is set to issue a short call for evidence next month and it is vital that practitioners participate in the process, the Association of Costs Lawyers has warned.
The Civil Justice Council hopes to issue a call for evidence at the beginning of November, with a deadline of the end of the month for responses.
See the full Litigation Futures article.
The president of the London Solicitors Litigation Association, Francesca Kaye, has said that the absence of rules, regulations and practice directions with just 10 weeks to go before implementation of the Jackson reforms is “wholly unacceptable” and threatens to tip the civil litigation system into chaos.
Ms Kaye predicted that the delay in publishing the rules and practice directions, lack of IT and administrative resources in court and lack of time for the judiciary to get up to speed was adding up to “a perfect storm where the current crisis would be tipped into chaos”. Read the full Litigation Futures article here.
Neil joins after 9 years experience with another leading costs drafting firm where he gained considerable experience in both commercial costs disputes and personal injury CFA funded work. He is also widely experienced in attending detailed assessments both at the SCCO and county courts.