Civil Justice Council moves to fix fast-track fees

A move to fix the level of legal fees for all fast-track civil cases will begin this week, the Gazette can reveal.

The Civil Justice Council has gathered together 13 representatives from the legal profession and insurance industry, including the Law Society, to start work initially on setting fees for all road traffic (personal injury [PI] and non-PI), employer’s liability, public liability and housing cases worth
up to £25,000.

The move is at the behest of Lord Justice Jackson, who indicated in his preliminary report on civil costs that he was minded to recommend fixed fees across the fast-track, and said recently that nothing that he has heard or read since publishing it has changed his mind.

He has tasked the council with trying to reach agreement on fee levels by 12 November for inclusion in his final report, which is expected the following month. If this is successful, the report will also set out a timetable and procedure for finalising figures for other categories of case.

However, the short timescale will prove a challenge, as claimant PI lawyers have long argued that the complexity of non-road traffic cases makes them unsuitable for fixed fees. ‘Our general position is that we do not support the further extension of fixed costs into other areas of PI,’ said a spokeswoman for the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers.

Anthony Hughes, president of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers, said fixed fees provide ‘a degree of certainty’, and that even if Jackson achieved nothing else, this would be a ‘big step forward’.