Pre-action Protocol for Low Value Personal Injury claims in RTAs

The Supreme Court held in this case, unanimously, that solicitors could be entitled to an equitable lien over the debt arising from the settlement agreement. The appeal tested the limits in a modern context, of the long-established remedy solicitor’s equitable lien. Traditionally, it was a judge-made remedy, motivated “not by any fondness for solicitors as fellow lawyers or even as officers of the court”, but to promote access to justice. The case concerned the Pre-action Protocol for Low Value Personal Injury claims in Road Traffic Accidents. It was held that once a defendant or his insurer had notice that a claimant had retained solicitors under a CFA, and the solicitors were proceeding under the protocol, they had the requisite notice to render it unconscionable for subsequent payment of settlement monies to be paid directly to the claimant, as amounting to interference with the solicitors’ interest in the fruits of the litigation. Therefore, the solicitors could be entitled to an equitable lien over the debt arising from the settlement agreement.