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The insider: 25 February 2022

25 February 2022
Issue: 7968 / Categories: Opinion , Personal injury , Constitutional law
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Pain ahead for lawyers? Dominic Regan takes a look into his crystal ball for the future of fixed costs & recounts a particularly unfortunate disclosure…

A bolt from the blue was delivered in late January with publication of a fixed costs consultation for cases worth up to £25,000 by the Department of Health and Social Care.

The NHS will be the obvious beneficiary. However, buried in the small print of the 84-page document is the declaration that claims against private health care providers will also be captured. This is significant because claims against aesthetic clinics are rife and much dental work today is outside the NHS.

I was told last September that something was definitely in the pipeline. What has traumatised the claimant fraternity is that the government, confronted in earlier negotiations with rival contentions as to what those fixed costs should be, has plumped for the exact figures adduced by the defendant camp. The misplaced expectation was that the difference would be split.

The ‘consultation’ closes at 11.45pm on 24 April

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Hugh James—Phil Edwards

Hugh James—Phil Edwards

Serious injury teambolstered by high-profile partner hire

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Freeths—Melanie Stancliffe

Firm strengthens employment team with partner hire

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

DAC Beachcroft—Tim Barr

Lawyers’ liability practice strengthened with partner appointment in London

NEWS
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
David Lammy, Ellie Reeves and Baroness Levitt have taken up office at the Ministry of Justice, following the cabinet reshuffle
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