BAR COUNCIL URGES GOVERNMENT  TO AMEND CIVIL LITIGATION REFORMS

As Peers debate reforms to civil litigation funding within Part 2 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Bill, the Bar Council, which represents barristers in England and Wales, has urged the Government to consider seriously its alternative proposals for reform.

 The Bar Council retains its primary view that success fees should remain recoverable from losing defendants rather than being taken from claimants' damages. However, it also recognises the need for a compromise position which reflects the Government's stated desire to give claimants an incentive to minimise their own litigation costs. 

For this reason, it has produced a briefing for Peers which proposes a comprehensive alternative reform agenda. This would impose limitations upon success fees and ensure that they are funded equally by unsuccessful defendants and successful claimants. These measures would maintain access to justice for vulnerable individuals whilst ensuring that claimants have a stake in their own costs.

Charlie Cory-Wright QC, Vice-Chair of the Personal Injury Bar Association (PIBA) and a member of the Bar Council’s working group on the LASPO Bill, said:

 “The Bar Council is very seriously concerned about the Government’s proposals which, against a backdrop of swingeing legal aid cuts, will threaten access to justice for all but those claimants with the most simple and certain of claims. The net effect of Part 2 of the LASPO Bill, which ‘cherry-picks’ recommendations from Lord Justice Jackson’s review of civil litigation funding, will be to deter ‘no win, no fee’ lawyers from taking on more complex cases.

 “This will prevent many worthy claims from being brought, including clinical negligence cases involving complicated brain damage at birth, mesothelioma (asbestos poisoning) cases and cases in many areas of public law, such as housing and judicial review, where the inequality between the claimant and defendant is at its most severe. We have written to the Justice Minister, Lord McNally, to put forward our comprehensive alternative reform agenda, which would retain access to justice while encouraging responsible behaviour by claimants and defendants. 

“The Government has been disingenuous in dismissing many of the Bar Council’s criticisms of the LASPO Bill as self-interested, while at the same time allowing the insurance industry to exert a disproportionate level of influence upon its policy-making. In fact, barristers provide independent representation to both claimants and defendants. The Government's proposed reforms will not save the taxpayer money. The only groups who will benefit are insurance companies and negligent defendants, including employers, local authorities and other government bodies - particularly those against whom valid claims will now no longer be brought."

 ENDS

 Notes to editors

 1.      Please click here to read the Bar Council’s briefing for Peers on the civil litigation reforms within Part 2 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill.

 2.      For further information, please contact the Bar Council Press Office on 020 7222 2525. 

3.      The Bar Council represents barristers in England and Wales. It promotes:

 

·      The Bar’s high quality specialist advocacy and advisory services

·      Fair access to justice for all

·      The highest standards of ethics, equality and diversity across the profession, and

·      The development of business opportunities for barristers at home and abroad.

 

The General Council of the Bar is the Approved Regulator of the Bar of England and Wales. It discharges its regulatory functions through the independent Bar Standards Board.