Counting the costs | Feature
At the table (left, clockwise)
Eduardo Reyes, The Law Society Gazette (chair)
Sharon Allison, Ashtons, SCIL
John McQuater, Switalskis, APIL
David Haynes, ARAG plc
Nicola Critchley, DWF, FOIL
Richard Miller, The Law Society
Ben Collins KC, Old Square Chambers
Beth Heath, Lanyon Bowdler
John Hyde, The Law Society Gazette
Gillian Gadsby, Gadsby Wicks
Catherine Bennett, Capsticks
Anne Kavanagh, Irwin Mitchell
Krishna Kotecha, Moosa Duke
Vinod Kathuria, TULA Medical Experts
Paul Rumley, RWK Goodman, SCIL
Richard Geraghty, Irwin Mitchell
Emily Formby KC, 39 Essex Chambers, PIBA
Malcolm Johnson, Lime Solicitors
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act has a significant birthday this year. It is 10 years since the 2012 legislation came into force, with huge consequences for civil justice. Personal injury and clinical negligence cases were among those that lost most public funding, which was cut through part 1 of the act. Those cuts went hand in hand with reforms of civil justice based on a review and report by Sir Rupert Jackson.
The Jackson reforms ended the recoverability of the ‘success fee’ that attached to conditional fee agreements, meaning it was no longer among the costs that could be recouped from a losing defendant. The reforms also enhanced the importance of case management and costs budgeting by placing discussions and agreements relating to both elements close to the start of a case’s conduct. Meanwhile, the principle of ‘qualified one-way costs shifting’ (QOCS) provided some protection for claimants against an adverse result. That principle has since been eroded.
Access to justice
The loss of legal aid for most personal injury and clinical negligence cases is lamented by claimant lawyers and campaign groups, but law firms have adapted and continued to