Fixed costs coming to Commercial Litigation

With the Jackson reforms bringing fixed costs to RTA, EL & PL claims, a Commercial Court Judge stated that a tariff of recoverable costs would likely be introduced in the commercial arena. Mr Justice Flaux was addressing litigators at the Law Society’s commercial litigation conference when he said ‘My own view is that where we are heading…

DBAs: No longer MIA?

Damage based Agreements (DBAs), also known as Contingency Fee Agreements, were permitted to be used in contentious work from the 1 April 2013 following the recommendations made by Lord Justice Jackson.  However, the lack of firms taking up the option was striking and the Master of the Rolls was asked to undertake a review of…

Jones -v- Spire Healthcare

Who would have thought that one piece of paper would cost so much to a firm of Solicitors? For a long time people have assigned retainers, more specifically conditional fee agreements from one firm of Solicitors to another; however the recent case of Jones has created a storm amongst the already unclear issue of retainers. The case…

Costs on the Shorter Trial Pilot

As you may be aware, there has been long standing concern with regard to the time taken to bring commercial matters to trial. As a result a pilot has been commenced in the Rolls Buildings Courts (the Patents Court and the Companies Court, the Commercial Court, the London Mercantile Court and the Technology and Construction…