Munich Re – Annual Claims Managers’ Seminar
GWS were this year’s guest speakers at Munich Re’s prestigious Annual Claims Managers’ Seminar.
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New Appointment – Emily Fraser
We are delighted to announce that Emily Fraser has joined GWS. She was called to the Bar in 2005 and was previously Costs Advocate with Legal Costs Negotiators Ltd. Emily has a strong background in dealing with technical costs matters and a broad range of advocacy experience, particularly in high value claims including clinical negligence
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Costs Capping Consultation
It has been recognised for some time now that the Courts have the power to make costs capping orders that limit in advance the amount of costs that a party can incur in litigation. The crucial question has been how readily the courts would use this power. There are two contrasting views. One being that
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The price of justice: gratis
The case of Berry v Spousals (Midlands) Limited & Cape Darlington – (Birmingham CC) 24/4/07 concerned an asbestos related claim which settled for £5,000. The sticking point was the costs. As the judge commented on the subsequent costs appeal: “I will wager that the parties here, their lawyers, have spent more time dealing with and
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Accident Line Protect
In our recent Costs Law Updates we have been following the progress of challenges to the validity of CFAs entered into through the Law Society approved Accident Line Protect (ALP) Scheme. These challenges centre around the issue of whether there had been a breach of Regulation 4(2)(e)(ii) of the now revoked CFA Regulations 2000, which
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Court of Appeal does it again
In KU v Liverpool City Council [2005] EWCA Civ 475 the Court of Appeal held that a court did not have the power to award a success fee at different levels for different periods in the claim where the Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) in question only allowed for one success fee throughout. It is therefore
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Idiot-proof CFAs – tested to destruction by idiots
Since the CFA Regulations 2000 were revoked, on 1st November 2005, it should now be virtually impossible to enter into a defective CFA. Generally the only requirements for a CFA to be valid are that it is in writing and the success fee does not exceed 100%. GWS were recently instructed to advise in relation
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Ministry of Justice Response
The Government has now published its Response to the consultation paper: Case track limits and the claims process for personal injury claims. This has already received a mixed reaction in the legal and insurance press but here we will simply deal with the costs issues, which appear to have only received limited commentary to date.
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2008 Guideline Hourly Rates
The Advisory Committee on Civil Costs is in the process of a thorough review of the guideline hourly rates. However, pending its findings, the Committee has advised that the guideline rates from 1st January 2008 should be increased in line with the increase in average earnings in the private sector, currently 4%.
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