I write about legal costs, litigation funding and related questions arising in civil litigation. The emphasis is practical: what the authorities mean, how the rules operate and where the real risks lie.
The latest articles appear below. If you are looking for a particular area, the four broad gateways provide a quicker route into the archive.
Costs
Commercial costs, Part 36, QOCS, detailed assessment and related costs issues.
Litigation Funding
Funding agreements, ATE insurance, security for costs and the economics of litigation.
Solicitor-Client & Retainers
Solicitors Act assessments, retainers, CFAs, DBAs, success fees and deductions from damages.
Group & Specialist Litigation
Collective proceedings, group litigation and selected wider developments affecting civil justice.
Recent analysis
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Three is company
In this third post on retainers, I set out some thoughts on current issues in drafting retainers, which are particularly acute at the current time, not least by reason of recent changes in the substantive law or the Civil Procedure Rules. A solicitor who acts on the basis of a traditional privately paid retainer, charging…
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Joining the party
One of the ever-green topics of the law and practice of costs, concerns the circumstances in which the courts of England and Wales, will use their powers under section 51 of the Senior Courts Act 1981, to make a costs order against a non-party to proceedings. This area of law is blessed with both an…
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In the Halls of the Word Smiths
This week I purchased a subscription to Microsoft Copilot Pro: I now have within my Microsoft Office 365 applications, a new and trusty chatbot, which might prove very useful as I develop my interest in, and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). I saw yesterday that the Bar Council has published new guidance on the use…
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Words of Power
Part of my work is the drafting of contracts. Some of the contracts I draft are retainer documents. Drafting is a particular skill. My aim is to produce a clear, enforceable and legal document. Something a solicitor can rely on as against her client. Something that can be easily explained to a client. Over the…
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Little boxes
One of the features of reaching the plateau of middle age, is being able to look back at the steps along the way. 20 years ago, I undertook a raft of detailed assessments in housing disrepair claims before Master O’Hare, which came to judgment in early 2004 as set out here: Bowen v Bridgend CBC.…
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Rumbling on
Welcome to 2024. A new year, new horizons, new issues and the costs wars continue to rage. There are imminent battles on the horizon, dealing with the implementation of the expanded fixed recoverable costs regime, a new war being waged in relation to costs in housing disrepair claims and the solicitor-own client front is about…
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Costs and clinical negligence claims
Twixmas (that curious period between Christmas and New Year) can be a time for angst, stress, boredom, and in the worse scenarios despair. Family tensions can run high. Stress points fracture. It may not be a restful holiday. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Even if storms are raging outside (or inside) there…
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ChatGPT4
Many years ago in the 1980s, I received for my birthday a ZX81 computer. It had an internal 1k of memory, expanded by a memory board, attached to the back, which wobbled engagingly from time to time and which provided a further 16k of memory. Programs (usually games) were loaded into the memory, painstakingly by…