Costs budgeting will be introduced for judicial review cases where either party’s costs are likely to exceed £100,000.
The MoJ announced the details of its decision this week, in its long-awaited response to its ‘Consultation on extending fixed recoverable costs in civil cases’, which was first published in March 2019 and was based on proposals in Sir Rupert Jackson’s 2017 report on civil justice costs. Buckland said the Civil Procedure Rules Committee will now draft rules to be implemented ‘over the coming year’.
However, Neil McKinley, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), said the MoJ’s decision ‘misses the point that most personal injury cases really are complex and cannot simply be shoe-horned into a simpler system with which they are just not compatible.
‘Employers’ liability disease claims, for example, can be incredibly complex, as can product liability claims, yet both categories of claim are to be included in this new system. The MoJ has also provided little detail about how this will work, leaving it to “the parties and judges” to work that out. That will take time and, until we get clarity on these matters, injured people will be subjected to a great deal of uncertainty at a time when they are very vulnerable.’
Association of Costs Lawyers (ACL) chair Claire Green said: ‘The question of fixed costs ultimately comes down to the figures.
‘Do they provide genuine access to justice and allow a party to conduct litigation effectively, or do they only work for the privileged few who can afford to pay for litigation irrespective of what they recover from an opponent. The proposed figures for the fixed costs adopted by the MoJ were based on just one law firm’s sample of cases, where it acted for the defendants.
‘The government needs a much more rigorous statistical base if it is to widen the use of fixed costs, and also needs to commit to regularly reviewing and updating them.’
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