All articles by Rachel Rothwell – Page 19
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News
Lawyers wary of cost-shifting plan
Claimants who win their cases could still end up with nothing under the government’s new costs rules for personal injury, lawyers warned this week. Claimant solicitors said the way government plans to implement its qualified one-way costs-shifting (QOCS) rules will ‘undoubtedly’ deter people from making valid ...
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MoJ answers key QOCS questions
The government has answered some of the fundamental questions about how its new system for transferring the costs burden in personal injury cases will work. Under qualified one-way costs shifting, claimants are intended to be protected from defendants’ costs in most circumstances, even when they lose. ...
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Is it wrong to profit from divorce litigation?
There are some intriguing developments in the financing of divorce cases at the moment. Investment in divorce litigation hit the headlines earlier in the year with the high-profile divorce of Michelle Young from her millionaire former husband Scot, described in the press as a 'fixer’ for ...
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Fees on way back down to earth
Speaking at the Association of Costs Lawyers’ annual conference last week, the master of the rolls Lord Neuberger expressed great confidence that a combination of the Jackson reforms, alternative business structures and client demand for fixed fees will mean that lawyer’s fees are almost certain to come down.
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Regulation of will-writers will affect solicitors too
The solicitors’ profession was punching the air in celebration last week when the Legal Services Board announced its intention to finally bring will-writing into the regulatory fold.
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The third degree
In the House of Lords recently, a Liberal Democrat peer pointed out that third-party funding used to be ‘both a crime and a civil tort’. But unusually for a practice that was previously considered illegal, third-party funding is now basking in the warm glow of judicial approval; and while the ...
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Are judges interested in legal costs?
In a year’s time, everything is set to change in relation to lawyers’ costs. Among Lord Justice Jackson’s many and ambitious plans are a new rule on how to decide whether legal fees are proportionate (met with scepticism by many experts, it must be said), ...
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DBAs move a step closer
With damages-based agreements (or contingency fees as they used to be known) coming into being next April, the Civil Justice Council has now set the wheels in motion to begin drawing up the all-important rules that will govern how the new fees are actually going to operate.
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Lord Young shuns meeting with profession’s regulator
Lord Young of Graffham turned down an offer to meet with the solicitors' regulator in advance of his report on health and safety and the ‘compensation culture’, the Solicitors Regulation Authority has said. The SRA said it had ‘offered to engage’ with Young during the research ...
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Government regulation of third-party funding shelved - for now
The question of whether third-party investment in litigation should be regulated by government raised its ugly head one final time in the House of Lords last week.
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Solicitors need to wise up to contingency fees
One of the big uncertainties of the Jackson reforms is how big damages-based agreements (‘DBAs’, or contingency fees as they are more commonly known) are going to be. For the first time outside of employment cases, from April 2013 lawyers will be able to take ...
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News
Look out for a clampdown on costs
It’s fair to say that most litigators prefer to spend their time on the cut and thrust of litigation rather than compiling detailed calculations of what they expect their final bill to be.
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News
Storm raging over investing in litigation
Third-party litigation funding (through which investors fund someone else’s case in exchange for a percentage of damages if they win) does not normally receive much mainstream attention in the UK, given that it is a relatively small sector here.
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News
A blow for case management?
The Gazette reported last week on a case in which former firm Bevan Ashford faces legal action over advice given free of charge by a newly qualified solicitor. Given the number of firms out there offering a free half-hour of advice to new clients, it’s no wonder that so many ...
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Jackson urges caution over contingency fee cap
Lord Justice Jackson yesterday urged caution over setting limits on the percentage of damages that lawyers will be able to take in commercial cases under his reforms. The Court of Appeal judge also acknowledged that his wide-ranging changes to civil justice may not come into force ...
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Court of Appeal orders retrial over Bevan Ashford ‘negligence’ case
A case concerning the standard of advice expected from a newly qualified solicitor in a brief, free, consultation with a distressed client is set for a retrial following an appeal court decision. In Padden v Bevan Ashford, the Court of Appeal overruled a trial judge’s ...
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Can CFAs replace legal aid?
As housing and other social welfare lawyers face the prospect of legal aid being withdrawn from their sector under the government’s reforms, many are looking at whether their practice could adapt to operate under ‘no win, no fee’ agreements instead.
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News
Flawed logic on tribunal fees
As the government announced plans to introduce fees for using employment tribunals (with a consultation seeking views on two options) it was clear that justice minister Jonathan Djanogly believes too many spurious claims are being brought against businesses under the current system.
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Will Jackson reforms be placed on hold?
The first day of December brought an early Christmas present for legal aid lawyers as justice secretary Kenneth Clarke announced that he would be delaying the legal aid reforms contained in his Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill.
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‘Alternative’ litigation funder to invest £100m in smaller-scale disputes
A new-style litigation funder seeking to invest in high volumes of lower-value commercial cases launches today. Caprica, which styles itself as an ‘alternative litigation funding company’, said it would make third-party funding available to a ‘much-expanded’ range of cases, providing access-to-justice for smaller businesses in ...