David Cooper examines a hot costs issue
Switching a clinical negligence claimant from legal aid to a conditional fee agreement (CFA) may have seemed like a good idea at the time, but years down the line, it is now causing various law firms significant problems. Suddenly, it has become the hot costs issue of the day.
The most high-profile cases of late have been challenges by the NHS Litigation Authority to such transfers made ahead of the Jackson reforms. According to the authority, it has now saved £500,000 in additional liabilities in four cases where the court held that the firm involved failed to give sufficient advice on the implications of losing the 10% uplift in general damages that came as part of the reforms. There are, it says, many more such cases in the pipeline.
Backing
But not all cases are like this. In January, the High Court backed a ruling by Master Rowley from the Senior Courts Costs Office (SCCO) that allowed a clinical negligence claimant to recover her costs under a CFA
