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
-
The great escape
The bane of solicitors practising in the field of personal injury has since at least 2013 been the application of fixed costs to personal injury claims which formerly would have attracted an award of assessed costs. The purpose of this article is to consider to what extent the chances of obtaining an award of assessed…
-
The road not taken
For many years the questions of alternative funding and its availability has been central to disputes about the recovery of costs claimed under a conditional fee agreement. Under regulation 4 of the long since repealed Conditional Fee Agreements Regulations 2000, failure to consider and advise a client upon alternative funding mechanisms before execution, could render a…
-
Beyond the Wall
I had an entertaining trip to Manchester on Friday, in order to speak at the ACL conference in the Hilton on Deansgate. Excellent weather, engaging company and some kind things said by members of the audience. A copy of the paper I delivered, can be found here: 2018 04 15 Qualified One Way Costs Shifting…
-
The North remembers
I have just finished putting the final touches to the paper on QOCS I have been asked to deliver at the ACL Manchester conference on 18th May 2018. Details of the conference which is being held in the Hilton Manchester on Deansgate can be found on the Association webpage here: http://www.associationofcostslawyers.co.uk/Conference-Programme—Manchester Sadly, I note there is…
-
I fought the law
It has been cynically observed in the author’s presence, that insurance companies only care about fraud, and costs, and only about care about the latter because they regard costs as a species of fraud perpetrated by the legal profession. One of the phenomenons of recent years has involved the practice of “third party capture” or “intervention” where…
-
QOCS considered
A central part of the LASPO 2012 reforms, was the introduction of Qualified One Way Costs Shifting (QOCS) as part of the Faustian bargain struck between the government and the insurance industry, in return for the abolition of recoverable additional liabilities including success fees and ATE premiums in personal injury and clinical negligence cases. Conceptually…
-
The Republic of Liverpool
I have just returned from another outing to the Liverpool County Court, where I am a frequent visitor. It is one of my favourite courts. The judges are polite and sensible. The ushers are wry and efficient. And downstairs, is Hemingways Coffee shop, which I can testify provides the best bacon sandwich I have encountered…
-
Widows and orphans
Sometimes a defendant makes a shrewdly judged part 36 offer, which is refused or ignored by the claimant or there is some reason for delaying acceptance beyond the 21 day period within which it may be accepted with impunity as to costs: there may be very good reason for doing so. In the context of a…