Conditional Fees: Recovering Success Fees and Insurance Premiums

The Government has published its conclusions following consultation and the Lord Chancellor has announced that claimants whose conditional fee agreements were signed on or after 1 April will be able to recover insurance premiums and success fees from losing defendants. However, it will be a close run thing. First, the Lord Chancellor’s Department must produce regulations for Parliament to make an Order by affirmative resolution. Concurrently rather than consecutively the Rules Committee must produce draft rules for consultation and when these have been finalised there must be a supporting practice direction. It brings back memories of last year when as 26 April approached we saw six final drafts of the Costs Practice Direction! Although the Access to Justice Act and the Regulations will be implemented on 1 April, the target date for the Rules and Practice Direction is likely to be 2 May. The Government’s views set out in the report may be summarised as follows: