Legal Cost Specialists

Major reform ahead

“May you live in interesting times” – Ancient Chinese curse

Lord Justice Jackson has been appointed to look at options to extend fixed recoverable costs much more widely.  He has until 31 July 2017 to complete the review.  The review has been agreed with the government “and will inform its public consultation on proposed reforms, which will follow the review after consideration of its recommendations”.  He will formally commence his review in January 2017, but is inviting written submissions on this topic immediately.

The terms of reference are “to develop proposals for extending the present civil fixed recoverable costs regime in England and Wales so as to make the costs of going to court more certain, transparent and proportionate for litigants” and “to consider the types and areas of litigation in which such costs should be extended, and the value of claims to which such a regime should apply”.

In separate news, the Ministry of Justice has announced it is to press ahead with radical personal injury reforms aimed at curbing a “rampant compensation culture”.  Options being considered include:

  • Scraping the right to compensation, or capping the recoverable amount, for minor whiplash injuries;
  • Introducing a transparent tariff system of compensation payments for claims with more significant injuries;
  • Raising the limit for cases in the small claims court for all personal injury claims from £1,000 to £5,000; and
  • Banning offers to settle claims without medical evidence. All claims would need a report from a MedCo-accredited medical expert before any pay-out.

The consultation will run until 6 January 2017.

2 thoughts on “Major reform ahead”

  1. Well fixed costs has certainly been the subject of an internal memo within the senior Judiciary, I wonder who issued the “hands off” direction.

    Lets give Claimant lawyers the same amount of money for pushing to disposal run of the mill nuisance claims as those hard working lawyers who actually have to pass through the other stages to get to the final stage. Hmmmmm ok I suppose re-writing the rules wasn’t an option so we could call this a decision in the public interest maybe or just in the interests of the administration of justice (that old chestnut). I did read somewhere it is not for any Judge in this land to try and impose interpretation on the law especially in circumstances like this where the wording was wholly inadequate. Just goes to show that in the long term the statute books may aswell be replaced with Judges blog.

    But the other decision on fixed costs….. oh come on please! how many claims are we going to see now where the sole purpose of the Claimant will be to inflate the claim as pleaded to get it Multi Tracked. I can see the hire, repair and other such companies getting on board with that on their secret panel arrangements! As one door closes another opens eh.

    I have an idea, whatever idea they come up with next to sort out the legal profession, hold a referendum type vote on it with all interested parties having their say, forget brexit we will call this one fixit

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Post a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top