The coalition government has announced a consultation process in the autumn on the implementation of certain key recommendations from Lord Justice Jackson’s report Review of Civil Litigation Costs.
Matthew Amey questions the government’s rush to reform costs
The coalition government has announced a consultation process in the autumn on the implementation of certain key recommendations from Lord Justice Jackson’s report Review of Civil Litigation Costs. The government have indicated that they wish to prioritise a review of the recommendations in respect of conditional fee arrangements (CFAs), after the event (ATE) insurance and the viability of contingency fee arrangements.
The government’s preference to fast-track a review on these particular issues will be of concern to the ATE legal expenses insurance industry, whose very existence is threatened by two of the core recommendations in the Jackson report. Jackson LJ recommends an end to the recoverability of CFA success fees and ATE premiums in addition to the implementation of qualified one-way cost shifting, which would remove the adverse costs risks for impecunious claimants in certain types
