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Expert view: Civil litigation may change soon

February 11, 2010 16:35
1 min read

Last year marked the ten-year anniversary of the Civil Procedure Rules, the sweeping reforms of the civil justice system spearheaded by Lord Woolf. Although many of these reforms have been judged successful, it is widely agreed they have failed to curb rising legal costs, often blamed for inhibiting access to justice.

In November 2008 senior judge Lord Justice Jackson was appointed to lead a fundamental review of the system of costs in civil litigation. Lord Justice Jackson’s report was published last month. The key recommendations include:

● Loser pays the winner’s costs: The “loser pays” rule should remain for commercial litigation, but in personal injury and defamation claims, it should operate only in favour of the claimant.

● No win no fee: Parties should continue to be able to use conditional fee agreements (deals where the lawyer is paid an uplift of up to double his or her usual fee if the case is successful) but the additional costs of doing so should not be recoverable from the losing party. Contingency fee agreements (where the lawyer is paid by way of a share in the client’s damages) should now also be introduced, subject to regulation and other safeguards.