FOIL encourages Government to press ahead with action on fixed costs

The Forum of Insurance Lawyers (FOIL) has called upon the Government to press ahead with the extension of fixed costs on the fast track and the lower reaches of the multi track.

FOIL has said that it sees “real benefits” in a fixed costs regime, not least in reducing the need for costs budgeting, which it said is clogging up the courts system.

“We are calling on the Government to make progress on the issue,” said FOIL President, Duncan Rutter.

Following on from Lord Justice Jackson’s speech earlier this year calling for fixed costs on all claims up to £250,000, FOIL has set up a Fixed Costs Working Group to focus on the issue and examine the draft proposals in detail. The group will be working with a number of FOIL’s sector focus teams, including Clinical Negligence, to develop its own recommendations on making fixed costs work.

Rutter, a member of the new working group, added: “Lord Justice Jackson has set out detailed proposals for a fixed costs regime which he believed could be delivered within the course of this year, if the political will were there.

“It’s disappointing that we have seen only limited activity on the issue since then.”

FOIL has been a long-term supporter of the principle of fixed costs and welcomed the proposals in 2015 to introduce fixed costs for clinical negligence claims.

Mark Dugdale