Key recommendations from the Review of Civil Litigation Costs Final Report of Lord Justice Jackson, published 14th January, 2010
A resumé of the key recommendations may be found on page 463 of the 584 page report [click here to view the report in PDF format]. However, here is a selection of the most important ones:
- Success fees and ATE insurance premiums should cease to be recoverable.
- Increase in general damages to compensate.
- Referral fees should be disallowed.
- Qualified one way costs shifting ( i.e. losing claimant will not pay defendant’s costs but losing defendant will pay claimant’s costs).
- Fixed costs in Fast Track cases.
- Contingency fees to be allowed.
- General pre-action protocol to be abolished (other 10 specialist protocols to be retained).
- Campaign to increase awareness of ADR.
- Training for judges and lawyers on how to conduct e-disclosure efficiently’ and lastly,
- Menu of disclosure options to replace standard disclosure.
Copies of the preliminary and final reports may be downloaded or ordered from the Judiciary of England and Wales web site