Jennifer James contemplates Lord Justice Jackson’s legacy...
The Preliminary Report on Civil Litigation Costs by Lord Justice Rupert Jackson has been produced, following a whirlwind tour of various jurisdictions including the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, France and Germany, the bulk of which took place in late March/early April of this year. Having acted so promptly in producing the report, Jackson LJ expects his stakeholders to act equally promptly in responding thereto.
This is not as daunting a task as may first appear since many practitioners and interest groups will want to focus upon discrete areas of specific interest, thereby breaking the task down into more manageable tranches. Those of you practising under conditional fee agreements (CFAs) would be well advised to make time to read the report in time to raise comments upon it before the deadline of July 31, 2009.
One-way costs shifting in PI cases There are some radical suggestions floated in the report, one of which is so-called “one-way costs shifting” in personal injury cases. That is a system
