No time for hesitation

Jackson: the case for reform remains strong. Andrew Parker explains why

It is now nearly nine months since the master of the rolls, Lord Neuberger, declared at the launch of Lord Justice Jackson’s final report, that the “time for discussion and debate is over”. That certainly did not stop the debate, but has the report had the desired impact?

In terms of the need for reform of civil litigation costs, nothing has changed. High success fees and high after the event (ATE) insurance premiums, often equalling or exceeding the amount in dispute, still abound.  Conditional fee agreements are still “the major contributor to disproportionate costs in civil litigation in England & Wales” (Jackson LJ’s final report p xvi).

The case for fixed costs on all fast track cases remains as powerful now as it was when Lord Woolf first proposed the concept in 1995.  The introduction of the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) process for Low