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
-
Hard times
The Civil Proceedings Fees Order 2008 amongst other horrors, provides a set of convoluted provisions for remission of court fees for people of modest means. A complicated scheme is set up by article 5 and schedule 2 of the Order, providing that if a gross monthly income and/or disposable income test is met, then a party can be granted a fee…
-
The Imitation Game
QUOCS (or QOCS as some term it) is one of the more sensible aspects of the LASPO 2012 reforms: in return for the abolition of recoverable success fees and ATE premiums, the insurance industry and other compensating bodies were made subject to a regime of one way costs shifting, which was broadly fair and ensured access to justice for…
-
Your flexible friend
An interesting and potentially lucrative area of work for practitioners in the field of consumer rights can be found in competition law. Competition law in England and Wales has a long pedigree which pre-dates the establishment of the common law and can trace its origins back to legislation emanating from the Roman Empire. In medieval times, the Plantagenet kings…
-
Loathsome reptiles
One of the few intangible benefits of the Credit Crunch and subsequent recession, was to make the banking profession more unpopular with the public than the legal profession and to shine a spotlight on a lot of their more dubious activities, including some actions which were outright criminal. Earlier this year a number of former bankers from HBOS…
-
Non party costs and credit hire
One of the other areas of work that keeps me busy, is credit hire. The gift that never stops giving, as I have been arguing those claims both for and against insurance companies for 20 years. I have another webpage I devote to all matters to do with credit hire here: http://www.credithirebarrister.com. An interesting point…
-
Winter has come
The clouds closed in today, the temperature plunged and the heavens opened. A sure sign that summer has effectively come to an end and autumn has begun. I have returned from various trips to a mountain of work, and a hefty backlog of topics to write about in relation to matters of costs and litigation funding. On…
-
And the last enemy to be destroyed shall be Death
Capacity to make a contract arises as in issue in costs disputes, when a paying party wishes to dispute the validity of a retainer, on the basis that it is void or unenforceable because the client lacked capacity to enter into it. The point has been thoroughly ventilated in the context of persons who lack mental capacity,…
-
Costs budgeting after Harrison II
The second issue that was debated in the case of Harrison v University Hospitals and Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust [2017] EWCA Civ 792 was described in these terms: 3. The second issue is whether, with regard to costs incurred prior to the budget (“incurred costs”), there is or is not a like requirement of good…