Lord Justice Jackson (pictured) may consider a costs recovery system based upon the German model when he releases the preliminary findings of his 1,000 -page review into civil litigation costs early next month.

Addressing the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers annual conference last week, he spoke about the ‘extremely interesting’ German system, which sets out the recoverable costs for every type of case, based on value and the stage at which the claim is resolved. ‘The Germans tell me their system works extremely well,’ he said. But legal expenses insurance is far more widespread in Germany, he pointed out, while there is much less document disclosure. ‘One has to hesitate before grafting the German costs regime onto a completely different system of civil justice,’ he said.

He talked only briefly about the other jurisdictions he had visited, including France, Australia, the US and Canada.

Jackson said the review will be open for consultation between May and July and he pledged to make himself ‘as available as possible for public or private meetings’. He will write the final report between September and December 2009.

Answering questions from the floor, Jackson distanced himself from Lord Chancellor Jack Straw’s comment earlier this year that running a successful legal business is not the purpose of the law. ‘Access to justice is only possible if solicitors are enabled to run profitable businesses,’ Jackson said.