Lord Justice Jackson's Review of Civil Litigation Costs: Final Report was published yesterday morning after more than a year of extensive research and consultation. The report runs to over 500 pages, and is supplemented by an interim report and several annexes.
It represents the most significant review of the civil litigation system since the Woolf Report in 1996 and proposes a package of reforms intended to promote access to justice at proportional cost.
Some of the key recommendations include:
- Removing the ability to recover the success fees under a Conditional Fee Agreement and After the Event Insurance Premiums from unsuccessful opponents in civil litigation, which the report identified as significant contributors to costs being disproportionate
- Introducing "contingency" fee arrangements where the lawyer is only paid if a claim is successful and that payment represents a proportion of the damages awarded
- Capping the level of costs which can be recovered in smaller "fast-track" trials to £12,000. Currently the fast track deals with claims worth £25,000 or less but the costs involved in bringing or defending those claims can frequently exceed the value of those claims
- Introducing new disclosure rules for substantial cases (those exceeding £1 million) to ensure the level and costs of disclosure remain proportionate in those cases
- Introducing "qualified once way costs shifting" for judicial review, personal injury and clinical negligence claims where a claimant would only be liable for a small proportion of the defendant's costs if the claim was unsuccessful, rather than the current rule that it should pay the defendant's costs. That would be subject to the financial resources and the conduct of the parties in the proceedings
- Abolishing the old common law "indemnity principle" and replacing that with clear rules on what costs can and cannot be recovered
- Uplifting a damages award if a defendant fails to beat a Part 36 Offer made by the claimant before trial.
The report has be praised by Lord Neuberger, Master of the Rolls who has said " The measures the report proposes will ensure that legal costs are reduced, and that civil justice will be more efficient and fairer".
While it remains to be seen whether this enthusiasm is followed through by the Ministry of Justice, the report identifies that reform is needed and hopefully it serves as indication of things to come as the government strives to improve access to justice.