Costs Round Up #28
Welcome back to a round-up of costs news.
This week Litigation Futures reported on two cases involving a move from public funding to conditional fee agreements prior to implementation of LASPO 1 April 2013. In Surrey v Barnet & Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust [2015] EWHC B16 (Costs) Master Rowley concluded that the Client did not give informed consent to move from legal aid to CFA, as he had not been told of the 10% Simmons uplift to damages that would be introduced post-LASPO and the significant impact this would have upon the monies he would ultimately receive in settlement.
In a second case Hyde v Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust [2015] EWHC B17 (Costs), Master Rowley concluded that a Solicitor firm had legitimately moved its client from public funding to a CFA even though a notice of discontinuation had not been served on the Legal Services Commission (sic).
Master Rowley stated that:
“Where a party has exhausted the costs that can be claimed under a certificate so that it is ‘spent’, they can in principle establish a discharge by conduct in the same manner as certificates in which all of the work up to a limitation of scope has been carried out. The effect of that discharge is to end the services funded by the LSC and enable a private retainer to fund the remainder of the proceedings.
“The notification of the new funding arrangement in form N251 satisfies the need for formality in notifying the opponent of the ending of costs protection. Mr Mallalieu [for the claimant] sought to persuade me that notification was not necessary in any event but I take the view that it was required to deal with the costs protection aspect.”
Barrister Gordon Exall comments on the Civil Justice statistics April to June 2015.
Elsewhere, Rachel Rothwell, writing in the Law Society Gazette provides a useful summary on the proposed budgeting reforms expected next month, asking Will Budgeting Changes make any difference?
Finally, don’t forget the changes to high costs care case plans due 1st October 2015, are you ready? Find out more from our VHCC cost specialist Leanne Davies here.
Until next week,
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