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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Challenging ATE premiums
One of the areas of costs practice that has a little while to run yet despite the implementation of the Jackson reforms is the recovery of ATE premiums. A “long tail” of cases where this is an issue continues to bedevil claims for costs. Yet challenging such premiums is often seen as one of the most difficult areas…
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Litigation funding and the little guy
Can litigation funding play a useful role in increasing “access to justice” for the individual, as opposed to an SME with a £1 millon plus damages claim? The next few years should provide an answer as the litigation funding market matures and develops, but there are some intriguing hints that the combined effects of ABS…
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Biting the cherry one more time
Consider. A personal injury claim has been struck out for failure to comply with an “unless” Order. The application for relief from a sanction has been dismissed in trenchant terms by a District Judge. The Circuit Judge has refused permission to appeal. So what? If QUOCS applies the claimant who would otherwise have to pay the…
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Wasted costs revisited
An interesting corollary, of the rise of QUOCS can reasonably be anticipated to be an upsurge in wasted costs Orders, sought against solicitors firms as victorious but impoverished litigants seek to recover costs they must otherwise write off. This post will consider some of the basic principles which apply when such applications are contemplated. The…
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QUOCS and Part 36
The post below is the text of a lecture delivered to the Association of Costs Lawyers Conference on 9th May 2014. 1.The introduction of the Jackson reforms on 1st April 2013, saw as one of the “big ticket” changes, the abolition of the recovery of After the Event (ATE) insurance premiums, and the introduction of a…
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Suing your solicitor?
One of the incipient developments of the next 12 months, must surely be a “mis-selling” scandal in respect of conditional fee agreements for low value personal injury claims, with solicitor-own client success fees, to clients who have the benefit of Before the Event (BTE) insurance. In the halcyon days, prior to the 1st April 2013, there was…
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The salmon run
Access to justice and angling make for unlikely bedfellows. For many people, including lawyers, the notion of spending a day motionless, waiting for a salmon to take in the dark peaty pools of a Highland river, or watching a fly anxiously in the shallows of the Trent, might seem only marginally more attractive than watching…
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Interest and disbursements
Who pays for the disbursements incurred in a case? In a successful case, it will be the paying party on a detailed assessment, but in a very meaningful sense, until that point, it will be the solicitors for the receiving party, who pick up the tab, paying for experts, court fees, and other expenses, as…