With the Jackson Review demonstrates once again is that members of the judiciary should never be asked to advise on anything to do with costs or funding. Judges notoriously know nothing about either.

Eminent though he is as a lawyer, it is apparent from Lord Justice Jackson’s failure to appreciate the importance of risk assessment or how success fees compensate for the loss of income from failed claims that he knows nothing worth knowing about conditional fee agreements.

It is a cardinal rule for any system that changes should only be mooted by those who are familiar with its workings, and who will have to work within the new regime after any changes are implemented.

Stephen Trahair, consultant solicitor, Foot Anstey, Plymouth