The Public Law Project (PLP), has threatened to bring a legal challenge to the proposed reforms to judicial review costs.
The legal charity says that while it does not object in principle to the decision to abolish the recoverability of success fees in conditional fee agreements, this must be accompanied by the safeguard of costs protection, or qualified one way costs shifting, for claimants who are not wealthy. The safeguard is being introduced for personal injury cases, but not for judicial review cases—an omission that PLP claims is unlawful.
PLP’s claim that there was insufficient consultation and reasoned justification for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to take a different path from that recommended by Jackson, and that the proposal breaches common law and international law requirements to ensure access to justice.
Jamie Beagent of Leigh Day & Co, acting for PLP, says: “To undermine a key means by which the public can access the constitutional court of this country without introducing the balancing reforms recommended by Lord Justice Jackson is unjustifiable.”
An MoJ spokesperson said: “The government set out its position on the reform of civil litigation funding and costs on 29 March. This followed careful consideration of the responses received during a full public consultation. ”
