In a case reported in Litigation Futures, a medical expert has been ordered to pay costs of £89,000. Remarkably the expert, Mr Jamil was “wholly unable to articulate the test to be applied in determining breach of duty in a clinical negligence case”
In another case there was correspondence about settlement of a claim that had fallen out of the RTA portal. The Defendants offered £60,000 plus reasonable costs. The Claimant’s Solicitors accepted this, on condition that costs were paid on the Standard Basis. The Defendants disputed the entitlement to costs on this basis and argued that costs were limited to the fixed costs payable within the portal. DJ Baldwin in Liverpool held that the agreement was to contract out of the fixed costs regime –
Many solicitors firms will be familiar with the work of www.checkmylegalfees.com . They acted in the well-known case of Herbert v HH Law Ltd in which Solicitors were ordered to repay their success fee to clinet because of failure to carry out a proper risk assessment. The firm has since advertised heavily, inviting former clients to claim against their lawyers. Last week they announced that they had merged with PI firm Clear Law…
https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/practice/dog-eat-dog-pi-firm-joins-up-with-costs-chaser/5103329.article
Finally, it was announced last week that the Government’s controversial ‘reforms’ of RTA whiplash claims will be delayed from April to August 2020. These reforms will see relevant claims allocated to the Small Claims Track if damages are likely to be less that £5000. This will happen alongside the imposition of a tariff that will see damages drastically reduced to what many argue, are entirely unrealistic levels. The combined effect of these measures will be to remove any entitlement to recover legal costs in most whiplash cases. The MOJ working with the Motor Insurers Bureau have been working on a Portal to make it easier for Litigants in person to negotiate the minefield of the claims process. This portal is nowhere near ready to go live which is what has led to the delay. It remains to be seen what happens in August.