Lord Justice Jackson discusses and debates his Preliminary Report

Lord Justice Jackson, a Court of Appeal judge, has been tasked by the Master of the Rolls with reviewing the entire civil justice litigation system, and making recommendations for promoting access to justice at proportionate cost. At the heart of the review is the affordability of litigation, and the desire to make it cost effective for litigants. This updates our Law Now dated 24 June available at this link.

CMS Cameron McKenna hosted an event on 30 June 2009 at which Lord Justice Jackson discussed and debated the content of his Preliminary Report. A number of key issues were identified during the debate, including the following:

• Contingency fees

Those present at the 30 June event debated the issue of contingency fees. Currently, solicitors are prevented by the Solicitors Act 1974 from entering into contingency agreements with their clients in relation to contentious business matters (i.e. most forms of litigation). Following the debate, Lord Justice Jackson called for a vote on the question of whether those attending were in favour of contingency fees based upon the "Ontario" system, that is whereby, the contingent aspect of the fee is for the account of the winning party rather than the losing party, who would have a costs exposure limited to a base level of costs.

There was a clear majority in favour of this approach.

• Disclosure reform

Disclosure reform is identified by Lord Justice Jackson as a feature of case management reform and was a topic strongly debated at the 30 June event. Various forms of reform were discussed and debated and Lord Justice Jackson called for a vote on the question of whether the present system of disclosure should be reformed. The most favoured option of reform was the adoption of a system similar to the International Bar Association's (IBA) Rules on the Taking of Evidence, whereby parties are only obliged to disclose documents that support their case and the other side make specific requests for other documents, or narrow categories of documents.

There was an overwhelming majority in favour of reform using the IBA Rules.