Consultation: Fixed Fees in Civil Cases 

Dear ALBA member,

Lord Justice Jackson is conducting a review of the potential for the introduction of a fixed fee regime in civil claims. The review will include judicial review and he has asked for views on the potential application of a regime based on costs in environmental judicial reviews (the Aarhus model – CPR 45-41-4 and PD45 as substituted from 28 February 2017 by SI).  The key relevant features of that regime are that:

• It applies at the option of the claimant. So, in a legally aided case it would be open to the claimant not to use this model but instead to rely on their existing costs protection under s. 28 of LASPO.
• The costs recoverable from an unsuccessful claimant are capped at £5,000 in the case of an individual and £10,000 in other cases.
•  The costs recoverable from an unsuccessful claimant are capped at £35,000.
• Since 28 February 2017 the court has had power to vary these limits as long as the costs are not “prohibitively expensive” (as defined in CPR 45.44) for the claimant.

ALBA is now seeking to canvass the views of members about applying this model more generally and to ask for data about levels of costs in judicial review. The results will be used to inform discussion at two seminars to be held by Lord Justice Jackson 13 March 2017 and 5 April 2017
Yours sincerely,

The ALBA Committee