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23 January 2020 / Dominic Regan
Issue: 7871 / Categories: Opinion , Profession
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Litigation 2020

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Radical reforms are coming but all will be well, says Dominic Regan

The final instalment of the Jackson jigsaw will be delivered with a drastic extension of fixed costs. It was a decade ago that his interlocking measures were revealed. Sir Rupert set himself the challenge of devising a regime where justice could be delivered at proportionate, reasonable cost.

To that end he decided that a fixed costs regime should apply to lower value cases. While such costs have been introduced in personal injury, mainstream litigation has been left untouched. That is going to change. In July 2017 recommendations were made by Sir Rupert which the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) only responded to last year. Matters worth between £25,000 and £100,000 would have costs determined by reference to a matrix. Out will go costs management at the start of an action and detailed assessment would fall away at the end. Cases would be allocated to one of three bands, each one having a scale of costs that would understandably increase as the matter progressed. A claimant making a good Pt 36 offer will get

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NEWS
Talk of a reserved ‘Welsh seat’ on the Supreme Court is misplaced. In NLJ this week, Professor Graham Zellick KC explains that the Constitutional Reform Act treats ‘England and Wales’ as one jurisdiction, with no statutory Welsh slot
The government’s plan to curb jury trials has sparked ‘jury furore’. Writing in NLJ this week, David Locke, partner at Hill Dickinson, says the rationale is ‘grossly inadequate’
A year after the $1.5bn Bybit heist, crypto fraud is booming—but so is recovery. Writing in NLJ this week, Neil Holloway, founder and CEO of M2 Recovery, warns that scams hit at least $14bn in 2025, fuelled by ‘pig butchering’ cons and AI deepfakes
After Woodcock confirmed no general duty to warn, debate turns to the criminal law. Writing in NLJ this week, Charles Davey of The Barrister Group urges revival of misprision or a modern equivalent
Family courts are tightening control of expert evidence. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Chris Pamplin says there is ‘no automatic right’ to call experts; attendance must be ‘necessary in the interests of justice’ under FPR Pt 25
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