Law Weblog

“No win no fee” arrangements

29 June 2004: The Department for Constitutional Affairs announced that it intends to simplify the rules for Conditional Fee Arrangements (CFAs) (“No Win No Fee”) which were hoped would promote access to justice. CFAs replaced Legal Aid in civil cases, four years ago.
Some observers claim this will take the UK further towards an unrestricted compensation culture.
Problems:
Defendants’ costs which have risen substantially to cover the success fees, which is part of their CFA.
CFAs are complex and opaque.
Reports that clients are being exploited by the unregulated and sometimes unscrupulous intermediary claims management companies.
The ‘indemnity principle’, where a party cannot recover from the loser more than he is actually liable to pay his lawyer.
Little is expected to change until late 2005.
DCA details here