Call for fixed costs compromise

Defendant and claimant personal injury solicitors must reach a compromise in the debate over fixed costs or risk seeing the government move in and create even more 'chaos' in the funding system, the president of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers (FOIL) warned last week.

Speaking at FOIL's annual conference in London, Tim Wallis told delegates that the split in opinion meant that neither side was going to get exactly what it wanted, and called for an end to the 'filibustering' before the government lost patience and took control of the situation itself.

'The government has made a complete and utter dog's breakfast of [funding reforms] so far and if we give them a chance to intervene then they might get it all wrong again,' he said.

Delegates expressed concerns that if fixed costs were restricted to the pre-issue stage - the model now being mooted - claimant solicitors would delay much of the work until proceedings were issued, when they could begin charging an hourly rate.

But David Marshall, vice-president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, told the conference that its members were not out to rip off the system.

'We are entitled to be paid for work reasonably done in a reasonable amount of time,' he said.

FOIL vice-president Jason Rowley said both sides should now get moving on a phased approach through a series of pilots to test the best way of working.

'We need to have some way of reviewing this properly and keeping it out of the hands of the Lord Chancellor's Department if we can,' he urged.

Delegates also heard that they must take a more proactive approach to the rehabilitation of accident victims as insurance clients were becoming increasingly interested in the process.

Steve Williams, of rehabilitation specialist Kynixa, said many large insurers were likely to include rehabilitation in their corporate strategies before the end of next year, and the courts were also waking up to the issue.

'I do not think it will be long before we see failure to mitigate arguments coming up before the courts,' he said.

- Average costs recovery has gone down over the past five years, rather than being out of control, leading personal injury firm Thompsons has claimed.

The firm has examined its files before handing over information to researchers for the Civil Justice Council's predictable costs working party, and said that, in real terms, its average costs recovery (based upon the hourly rates fixed by the courts) is 80% of what it was in 1997.

Case management partner Rachel Sarfas said: 'Our statistics nail the insurance industry's over-peddled myth that costs are out of control.' She said Thompsons' figures showed that 77% of its cases conclude pre-issue as compared to 53% in 1997.

Paula Rohan