14 August 2014
The pre-April 2013 costs regime, introduced by Pt II of the Access to Justice Act 1999, may be incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. Although Lord Neuberger stopped short of issuing a declaration of incompatibility in Coventry v Lawrence, he conceded that the respondents might be right in their contention that the global costs burden would be inconsistent with Convention rights. Not a happy time for litigators, according to Dominic Regan who writes: “Just as we slide away from the Mitchell mess we enter deeper, murkier waters”.
