Liam Tolen provides a guide for general counsel & in-house legal teams to the new fixed recoverable costs regime
- The new fixed recoverable costs (FRC) regime will be applied from 1 October 2023.
- General counsel need to decide whether it’s in the best interest of their firm to begin litigation now, or to wait until the new FRC regime comes into play.
The new fixed recoverable costs (FRC) regime is arguably the most significant reform to civil procedure in a generation. It does not tinker around the edges; it is wholesale reform.
Sir Rupert Jackson, the conceptual architect of FRC put it like this: ‘Controlling litigation costs (while ensuring proper remuneration for lawyers) is a vital part of promoting access to justice. If the costs are too high, people cannot afford lawyers. If the costs are too low, there will be no lawyers to do the work.’
From the perspective of a business grappling with decisions about whether or not to pursue a claim, it should be viewed through the lens of the added certainty it brings to cost recovery
