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21 July 2017 / Steven Davies
Issue: 7755 / Categories: Features , Costs
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Changing horses

Steven Davies reports on the ramifications of changing funding from legal aid to a conditional fee agreement

  • Switching funding from legal aid to conditional fee agreement.
  • Analysis of Hyde v Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

In the eagerly awaited decision of Hyde v Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust [2017] EWCA Civ 399, the Court of Appeal has clarified the position in a long-running case where there was a change of funding from legal aid to a conditional fee agreement (CFA) but the legal aid certificate was not formally discharged.

This was one of a number of recent cases in which changes in funding were more closely examined, particularly where the claimant’s solicitor chose to act in March 2013, the month before the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (also known as LASPO) came into force.

In this case, however, the timing appeared simply to be coincidental; rather, there were many fact-specific issues which were significant in deciding the reasonableness of

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NEWS
The Law Society RFC Festival of Sport returns next month, bringing together legal and financial services professionals for one of the sector’s largest annual sporting events
Legal aid deserts leave almost one in four without adequate access to justice
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has warned solicitors and law firms that using artificial intelligence does not alter their professional obligations, amid concerns over inaccurate legal material and client confidentiality
From forgotten interest claims to case-management appeals, a string of procedural developments offers useful—and occasionally cautionary—lessons for practitioners

Jonathan Fisher KC highlights that it now accounts for around 40% of criminal offences, with roughly 70% involving technology, and argues that the UK cannot simply prosecute its way out of the problem. Detection, investigation and prosecution all require improvement, while different fraud types demand tailored responses.

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