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Lord Jackson's Review of Costs

A few weeks ago Rhonwen Barraclough and David Owen from this office, had a meeting with David Chaytor MP.  He kindly agreed to ask some parliamentary questions for us on the issue of Lord Jackson’s current review. 

He felt (and we agreed) that our strongest point was that there has been no independent research to support the need for a review in the first place.  This is particularly relevant given Lord Jackson’s agreement with the Jack Straw’s contention that:-

“I am concerned about another element of legal services – “No win –no fee” arrangements.  It’s claimed they have provided greater access to justice, but the behaviour of some lawyers in ramping up their fees in these cases is nothing short of scandalous.”

Bridget Prentice has confirmed that no research has been carried out on models of funding, the consequences of fixed costs in RTA work or whether there has been any changes in payments since the Woolf Report in 1996. 

In our view, this gives us a concrete basis on which to challenge Lord Jackson’s recommendations in due course.   Surely, there has to be a compelling reason for introducing a wholesale change to the current system of costs and/or  methods of funding etc given the potential adverse implications for access to justice, claimants facing deductions from damages and the further assault on small to medium sized practices (and the inevitable redundancies which will follow)?  If there has been no research, if there is no empirical data, then what is the compelling reason?

The questions and the responses are attached. Click here

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