MAKE REGIME WORK

It disturbed me greatly to read the views attributed to the senior costs judge, Peter Hurst, in addressing the Law Society's civil litigation conference in relation to recoverability under the conditional fee regime (see [2002] Gazette, 31 January, 1).What claimant practitioners would really like to hear from the hierarchy is that they realise that the system is in a mess, largely as a consequence of defective drafting and ill- considered implementation by the government,under pressure to provide something to the profession and the public alike as a sop against the removal of legal aid.However, it is of no comfort to be told that 'we were rubbing along more or less okay' prior to April 2000.

Perhaps the learned judge should have come and spent a week or two then in an office undertaking conditional fee agreement work to try to explain the convoluted system to a lay client, and in particular that they would be paying a success fee even though they had been successful against an opponent.

It is wishful thinking to suggest that clients would not have been left out of pocket.What practitioners would really like to hear from the judiciary is that they recognise that we have a system that parliament intended to work and it is their job to take it 'by the scruff of the neck' and make it work.

At the sharp end, we will not be impressed by comments that appear aimed to take us backwards and to leave members of the public without real and effective access to justice.

Is there an undercurrent that perhaps the new system might just enable efficient and proactive lawyers to operate too profitably? The government's apparently laid-back attitude on these issues and the indemnity principle is simply exacerbating the situation.

Ministers are as much to blame as anyone but the perception is that it hardly seems to trouble them, and is certainly not a priority.

Perhaps officials from the Lord Chancellor's Department should also come and spend a week or two in our offices to find out what it is really like.Let us all stop contemplating and get on with making the thing work.Neil Sugarman, managing partner, Graham Leigh Pfeffer and Co, Bury