PI success fee agreements launched with more to come

The first two cross-industry agreements to fix success fees in personal injury cases run under conditional fee agreements (CFAs) came into force this week - with more on the way.

While the deal for road traffic accident cases was revealed last year, negotiators have also hammered out success fees for employers' liability accident cases.

Both sets of negotiations are understood to have been long and difficult.

The mediations - run by the Civil Justice Council - aim to find agreement on fixed success fees for employers' liability disease cases, and public liability claims, by the end of this year.

The Civil Procedure (Amendment No4) Rules 2003 fix the success fee in RTAs at 12.5%, unless the case goes to trial, when it is 100%.

It is the same for barristers, except multi-track cases that conclude within 21 days of trial (75%) and fast-track cases which conclude within 14 days of trial (50%).

The rules also provide an escape mechanism for cases worth 500,000 and more.

The fees in employers' liability accident cases are the same, except the base level for solicitors and barristers is 25%.

The Department for Constitutional Affairs said the scheme for solicitors is based on a 'revenue-neutral model.

That is the income obtained from a CFA portfolio should overall be no more than would be obtained from a portfolio of cases without CFAs.

The fixed success fees specified in the rules are expected to achieve that'.

Civil Justice minister David Lammy said: 'Fixed success fees will help bring stability and certainty to the personal injury claims market...

These changes will help revolutionise "no win no fee" arrangements for personal injury cases and help put the professionals back in charge of providing quality services to people with genuine claims.'