News | General

Jackson Reforms - Counsels Success Fee Post 1 April 2013

06 March 2013

One of the anomalies raised by the Jackson reforms concerns the recovery of success fees for Counsel entering into CFAs after 1 April 2013, in cases where the solicitor has entered into a CFA with the client before the new rules are implemented.

 

The intention of the rules would seem to be for Counsel’s success fee to also remain recoverable in such circumstances; however the rules can be interpreted in such a way that if Counsel’s CFA is entered after 1 April 2013 the success fee is not recoverable from the opponent as it falls under Article 6 of the Conditional Fee Agreement Order 2013 and Section 44(6) of LASPO.

 

This is an issues that needs clarifying and the Bar Council has proposed the following amendment to be made to Article 6:

 

Insert after 6(2)-

 

“6(3) Articles 4 and 5 do not apply to a conditional fee agreement made with an additional legal representative where:

 

a)     a person (P) has entered into a conditional agreement before the date of upon which this Order comes into force to which the provisions of Article 6(1) apply; and

 

b)     during the currency of that agreement P or the legal representative enters into another conditional fee agreement with an additional legal representative in connection with those proceedings.”

 

Such an amendment does seem very sensible and should avoid costly disputes between parties after 1 April 2013.  We will report further on this issues as soon as we have any further news.

 

If there is anything you would like to discuss regarding this or any other of the Jackson reforms please feel free to contact one of our Costs Lawyers.