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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Jackson One Year On
The text of this lecture was delivered at the Ropewalk Chambers Personal Injury Conference on 8th March 2014. Introduction 1. It is now just over 11 months since “J day”, when the package of reforms in the Jackson report were implemented. Since then the pace of change has been relentless, and progressive, in the sense…
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New business models and disability claims
One of the trends of the last 20 years, in the legal profession has been the move to specialisation. Many firms of solicitors now concentrate on a few, or even a single area of work, particularly in the field of personal injury litigation. This brings particular benefits in acquiring expertise, specialised knowledge, a relevant skill set, or…
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Liverpool 2 Salford 0: putting to rest the Salford Factor
On Friday 6th December 2013, His Honour Judge Wood QC, handed down a reserved judgment in two conjoined appeals, the cases of Alty and Huligan wherein he allowed the Claimant’s appeals against allocation to the Small Claims Track and re-allocated the claims to the Fast Track. The cases had been delivered to Salford for issue, before…
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It woz your number one, soar-away Sun wot won it !
Today, 27th November 2013, the Court of Appeal handed down judgment in what is now the leading case on the application of the new rule 3.9, in force post 1st April 2013, namely Andrew Mitchell MP.v.News Group Newspapers Limited [2013] EWCA Civ 1526. This keenly awaited decision, marks a further endorsement at the highest level of…
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Richard of York gives battle again
About 40 miles from here, in 1485, Richard III unwittingly brought the Middle Ages to an end, by losing the Battle of Bosworth Field to the victorious Henry Tudor. The defeated king’s remains were taken to Leicester and lost. Found in 2013, the Divisional Court on 26th November 2013 will hear the substantive challenge brought…
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Group litigation, costs budgeting and costs capping
One of the more interesting and challenging areas of costs, relates to the practice of costs in the context of group litigation, commonly arising out of mass claims for industrial disease or disastrous accidents. Part 19 of the Civil Procedural Rules 1998 provides a specific set of rules which deal with the making of a Group…
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Allocation and the Salford Factor
A large number of cases are emerging, where in a claim worth more than £5000 but less than £10,000, the proceedings were sent to court before 1st April 2013, but issued afterwards: in such circumstances, should the case be allocated to the Fast Track or the Small Claims Track ? The mischief can be succinctly stated…
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When clients depart and take the cash with them
It is always sad, when a solicitor and a client part company during the course of litigation, and such sadness can rapidly develop into financial pain, on a former solicitors part, if his client goes on to recover the costs he has agreed to pay the solicitor from the opposing side in litigation and then does…