Civil Justice Council launches working group to keep Jackson reforms under review

A new Civil Justice Council working group has been set up to advise the Council on further issues that may arise from the Jackson reforms.

The working group will look at everything tied to civil litigation costs, apart from damages-based agreements and will be chaired by CJC member and head of policy development at BLM, Alistair Kinley.

He will be joined by Steven Green (head of costs, Irwin Mitchell), Mark Harvey (a partner at Hugh James) , David Johnson (President of FOIL), Maura McIntosh (professional support consultant at Herbert Smith Freehills), John Mead (the NHS Litigation Authority's technical claims director),
Professor Rachael Mulheron (Queen Mary University), Andrew Ritchie QC (Chairman of the Personal Injuries Bar Association), Jenny Screech (underwriting manager at Zurich), Peter Smith (the former managing director of Firstassist Legal Expenses Insurance) and a yet to be named district judge.

The group has been asked to investigate and report on transitional questions in conditional fee agreement cases due to changes in the client’s status or the lawyer’s status, as well as arguments for and against extending Qualified One-way Costs Shifting to other cases such as actions against the police and solicitors’ professional negligence in injury claims. It has also been asked to make proposals for improvement designed to smooth the process of implementation and to facilitate access to justice.

Mark Dugdale