Under conditional fee arrangements (CFA), ‘No Win, No Fee’, lawyers have been able to recover costs for their personal claimants if they have successfully concluded a claim.  Currently not permitted in personal injury claims, for litigation before the courts an alternative funding to be consulted on are damages-based agreements, also known as contingency fees.  This would allow a proportion of the claimant’s damages to be taken in fees by lawyers, rather than the fees by paid by the defendant if they lose the case.

In a CFA, if the claim is won by the claimant’s lawyer there is usually a success fee and an insurance fee for the claim which is recoverable from the defendant.  Designed to take account of claims where the lawyer is not paid when a claim is lost, it is intended to reflect the risk of taking on any claim and can be upto an additional 100% on the costs.  To give claimants more of an interest in keep the costs of claims down, the consultation paper proposes that any success fee should be paid from the damages of the claimant.

There is also a much greater emphasis on pre-court settlement in the consultation document, again, all with the intention of saving on the costs of court cases.  It must be remembered however that most claimants are not looking to make quick money but bring claims because they have suffered injury or ill health and want justice.  Going to court for many people is more than the money paid to them in damages, it is about raising awareness of what has happened.

Anyone wishing to comment on or respond to the consultation paper can do so by February 14^th, http://www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/jackson-review-151110.htm