Lord Justice Jackson’s latest fixed costs roadshow has provided further indications that he may row back from his initial support for fixed recoverable costs in all cases valued at up to £250,000.
Jackson LJ began his review into fixed costs in November, and is conducting a series of seminars to gather facts.
However, lawyers voiced their concerns about fixed costs in judicial review cases at Jackson LJ’s latest seminar, at the Law Society’s London headquarters this week.
City Law School’s Professor Dominic Regan, who advised Sir Rupert on his 2010 review of civil justice costs, and who attended the seminar, said: “It was obvious that there was no appetite for fixed costs in judicial review work.
“Again and again, random members of the audience spoke with one voice. The staggering breadth of judicial review work was not regarded as capable of capture by a rigid costs regime.
“However, much was said in praise of the Aarhus Convention model enshrined in CPR 45.41–44. This imposes a limit on the amount of adverse costs. [Jackson LJ] may not then be proposing as radical a fixed costs landscape as he initially envisaged in his January 2016 opening proposals.”
In a progress report on his review, released earlier this month, he restated his support for lower value cases but said he had “an open mind” about what types and level of cases should fall within such a regime. He is due to complete his review by 31 July 2017.
