The chair of the Law Society’s civil litigation committee has delivered a scathing critique of the controversial claims-handling reforms proposed by the master of the rolls, Sir Geoffrey Vos.

Writing in a personal capacity in today’s Gazette, James Perry warns that Vos may be on the brink of ‘destroying our civil justice ecosystem’.

Plans for more fixed fees, and an online triage/ADR system powered by algorithms, will cost small law firms tens of millions of pounds in fees, Perry warns.

James Perry

Perry: Reforms will ‘act as huge deterrent’ to trainees

Meanwhile, baffled litigants in person ‘who don’t know what to do’ will swamp the civil justice system, securing far worse outcomes overall than if they were represented.

Perry, who is a consultant solicitor, also warns that the reforms will ‘act as a huge deterrent’ to trainees when deciding which area they would like to practise.

‘Why pick litigation when something like private client work feels a bit more settled? That kind of a situation seems very similar to criminal law, which is of course on its knees after years of operating at altitude where the air was thin and nothing was given any chance to grow,’ Perry says.

 

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