The legal profession needs to wake up and smell the coffee, warns Andrew Parker
Three years ago I warned in these pages that the broad recommendations of the Jackson Review of Civil Litigation Costs would be delivered (“Access all areas”, 160 NLJ 7408, p 366). In March 2011, the coalition government published the outline of its plans based on the report and, in May 2012, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 received the Royal Assent.
April in the offing
The planned implementation date of 1 April 2013 has been public knowledge since at least July 2012—it was certainly in the minds of the Court of Appeal when it delivered the initial decision in Simmons v Castle [2012] EWCA Civ 1039, [2012] All ER (D) 335 (Jul). The new Master of the Rolls, Lord Dyson, stated unequivocally to the Law Society’s Civil Litigation Conference in October that the rules would be in place for 1 April 2013.
However, recent coverage suggests that many lawyers are only now beginning to accept that these changes might actually happen. There are still calls
