Michael Cook examines the financial implications of litigants in person
By definition you will never act for a litigant in person (LIP); but however much you may wish to ignore them, “Lippies”, as they are affectionately known, are not going to go away. Their rates have been increased, legal aid is to dwindle yet again, so they will proliferate.
Successive governments cannot be accused of offering financial inducements to litigants to do it themselves. As Sir Rupert Jackson observed in Chapter 14 of the final report of his Review of Civil Litigation Costs, the hourly rate allowed to successful litigants in person had not been increased from £9.25 per hour since 1 December 1995. Applying the average earnings index for private sector services, the figure in December 2009 would have risen to £15.32, while annual increases of £1 had resulted in the equivalent figure awarded in employment tribunals being £29. He recommended a prescribed rate of £20 an hour. The 57th Update of the Civil Procedure Rules provided that in para 52.4
