Amanda Stevens hopes clarity on recovery will reduce wasted costs & encourage a less defensive approach
In what has been described as the most important costs decision since the Jackson reforms were introduced, the long-awaited Court of Appeal decision in Budana v Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust [2017] EWCA Civ 1980 has ruled that a conditional fee agreement (CFA) can be validly transferred from one law firm to another.
Briefly: the background. A heavily pregnant Mrs Budana was injured after she tripped on a defective pavement within the Leeds hospital premises. She instructed, Baker Rees, under a no win no fee (CFA) agreement, to pursue a claim for damages. However, they later advised her that they would not be continuing their personal injury practice, deeming such work to be no longer economically viable as a result of the then upcoming implementation of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 ((LASPO).
My firm, Hudgell Solicitors, agreed to continue Baker Rees’s cases and executed Deeds of Assignment with both the original
