Sorting out the fees mess

Could this be the beginning of the end? The Court of Appeal's ruling in the group of conditional fee agreement (CFA) cases last week gives lawyers on both sides much-needed direction.

Claimant solicitors should disclose their CFAs to the other side, while defendants should not take silly technical points in an effort to render CFAs unenforceable and frustrate their overall aim of facilitating access to justice.

These are times of rapid change for lawyers in this field.

Next week sees statutory instruments compromising the indemnity principle in relation to CFAs, while fixed fees in small road traffic cases that settle pre-issue will be with us shortly.

This summer will also bring a government consultation on simplifying CFAs.

Plenty of arguments remain unresolved: post-issue fixed fees, actions over claims management companies, and the level of success fees, to name but three.

But the government, courts and Civil Justice Council are making it clear that the mass of satellite litigation cannot continue.

The negotiations over fixed fees are a good, if isolated, example of common sense breaking out - claimant lawyers accepted lower fees in return for certainty of payment.

Both sides must now do their bit so that the bigger picture is not obscured with endless arguments about lawyers' costs.