Always reliable and accurate, with a good turnaround speed.
Paul Bunting, Partner, Aspinall Wright Solicitors
Did you manage to get a seat? With over 130 delegates packed in for a full day’s training and lively debate, you did well and what a cracking opening speech from Kerry Underwood.
The key message to take away? That the Jackson Reforms are here, this is what we have: so get on with it and make your business model work. He has a point. The depth and breadth of the reforms have been staggering and with many solicitors ignoring the inevitable one might have anticipated a palpable air of doom and gloom at this conference. Not so. When we start to unpick the costs implications of the Reforms what we see is a restriction only on the sum we can recover from the Paying Party. Low recoverable fixed fees will be relatively insignificant says Kerry Underwood, it is a logical, coherent way of proceeding and we must now regard all recoverable costs as a bonus
Make your business work on a model of 25% of damages, gearing your business up to worst case scenarios and see the fixed recoverable costs as a bonus and you will create income. Clients will remain content to pay damages to their Solicitor as long as they do not have to pay if they lose. “We will guarantee you 75% of your damages”, turn it around and work it into your marketing!
There are fears of a “race to the bottom” in the industry by firms who will consistently undercut percentages in favour of online advice, never meeting the client and employing under qualified staff. But do your market research. What does the public want? There will be a degree of market forces for sure but you need to ask, are you charging high enough fees? If you give your client 100% of damages what will you do when the claim is only worth £5000 and there is no recoverability of fees on the small claims track? Are you proposing to work for free? It is unsustainable as a business model.
Thoughts on ATE insurance? There is strong advice to have ATE insurance in place and to include that in the recovery from your client. 25% recovery on damages allowing for 5% recovery in ATE insurance premiums sounds a useful investment if this takes the pressure off you and your staff to beat Part 36 offers. And what have the 100% club to say about paying out on insurance? It is possible to reach the conclusion that no firm offering 100% recovery on damages can be seen to be doing the best for their client. Time will tell.
Final words from Kerry Underwood centered on service standards and what we can do as a profession to improve the delivery of legal services to our clients. Thought provoking and interesting content. This was very much the theme of the day with talks covering costs budgeting, changes to detailed assessment, proportionality, disclosure, witness statements, “hot-tubbing” and referral fees.
The conference was a joint venture with Zenith Chambers : keep a look out for the Jackson Corner on their website, coming soon!
Monday 15th April 2013