Costs & serving the needs of injured people will dominate John McQuater’s term of office
Taking on the role of president of the Association of Personal lnjury Lawyers (APIL) is both an honour and a rather daunting prospect— particularly in the current climate. In fact, what a welcome I had when last week, Lord Justice Jackson published his preliminary report on the review of civil litigation costs. Needless to say, the paper will take some serious time and thought to digest—not least because it is in two volumes which exceed more than 600 pages, not including the appendices.
Something as important as justice, like other vital aspects of our society such as healthcare and education, does come at a cost and, over recent years, much has been said about the funding of personal injury claims, not least the use of conditional fee agreements.
It is worth remembering that until a decade ago many personal injury claims were funded by legal aid. In those days the call was for legal aid to be
