For many years the Law Society provided a model conditional fee agreement for use in personal injury and clinical negligence cases. This was updated from time to time.
The last version was updated in 2014 and, even then, appears to have been a temporary job as the header to the document stated:
“This model agreement is in the process of being amended to take [sic] make it fully compliant with the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. You should refer to those regulations before using this model.”
This version was removed from the Law Society website in July 2021 with a message stating:
“The Law Society’s model conditional fee agreement (CFA) is in the process of being reviewed, and so is not currently published.
Solicitors using an old version should be aware that it does not reflect all of the recent changes to legislation, or case law, that may affect the viability of CFAs.
The model CFA and guidance were last updated in 2014. The model is intended for use in personal injury and clinical negligence claims.
We will issue a revised version in due course, taking into account ongoing judgments from 2021.
Thank you for your patience in the meantime.”
Solicitors waiting for the revised version will therefore be delighted with the latest update on the Law Society website (updated in December 2023) and now advising:
“The Law Society’s model conditional fee agreement (CFA) is in the process of being reviewed, and so is not currently published.
Solicitors using an old version should be aware that it does not reflect all of the recent changes to legislation, or case law, that may affect the viability of CFAs.
The model CFA and guidance were last updated in 2014. The model is intended for use in personal injury and clinical negligence claims.
The CFA will be reviewed in light of the court’s decision in Belsner v CAM Legal Services in October 2022.
We will issue a revised version in due course.
Thank you for your patience in the meantime.”
You couldn’t make it up.
The last time I wrote on this topic was in February 2022. The Law Society has still not got its act together. It is hardly surprising that I now spend so much of my time advising and drafting CFAs for solicitors.
How well does this reflects on the profession that the representative body for solicitors is unable to keep up to date with developments in the law or publish a model agreement years after promising to do so?
