Costs & success fees after Hirachand

• Success fees can be recovered from an estate, the Court of Appeal held in Hirachand v Hirachand.

On Friday, 15 October, the Court of Appeal confirmed that success fees could be recovered from an estate as part of a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. The ruling, in Hirachand v Hirachand [2021] EWCA Civ 1498, is confirmation that successful claimants under the Act enjoy special treatment when it comes to the recovery of costs, when compared to litigants in other claims, where the success fee is not recoverable.

This decision means that successful claimants under the Act will be able to preserve a greater share of the monies recovered under a successful claim, but will cost defendants even more, so could make cases harder to settle. On the face of it, it can be easy to think the decision will open the floodgates to lots of conditional fee agreement