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Budana: a victory for common sense

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11 December 2017 / Amanda Stevens
Issue: 7774 / Categories: Opinion , Procedure & practice , Costs
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​Amanda Stevens hopes clarity on recovery will reduce wasted costs & encourage a less defensive approach

In what has been described as the most important costs decision since the Jackson reforms were introduced, the long-awaited Court of Appeal decision in Budana v Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust [2017] EWCA Civ 1980 has ruled that a conditional fee agreement (CFA) can be validly transferred from one law firm to another.

Briefly: the background. A heavily pregnant Mrs Budana was injured after she tripped on a defective pavement within the Leeds hospital premises. She instructed, Baker Rees, under a no win no fee (CFA) agreement, to pursue a claim for damages. However, they later advised her that they would not be continuing their personal injury practice, deeming such work to be no longer economically viable as a result of the then upcoming implementation of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 ((LASPO).

My firm, Hudgell Solicitors, agreed to continue Baker Rees’s

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