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16 April 2014 / Jeff Zindani
Issue: 7603 / Categories: Opinion , Costs , Personal injury
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Weighted dice

Routinely inflating success fees to get the magic 25% is courting disaster, warns Jeff Zindani

I have presented a series of seminars on the business consequences of the Jackson reforms and have probably lectured to more than 200 lawyers, many of whom are partners or directors in small to medium sized personal injury firms.

A year into the reforms, my concern has been not with the politics of the reforms (what is happening at the coalface is more important), but making sense of how they affect personal injury practices and how they are responding to the changes. My overall message is that personal injury work for claimant lawyers can still be profitable, but firms must “retool” to cope with the largely fixed costs landscape.

Much of this is set out in my book with Professor Dominic Regan on Surviving Jackson (2013, Sun Legal Publishing). In the words of Peter Drucker: “The organisations likely to suffer the most are those with the delusion that tomorrow will

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Flint Bishop—Charlotte Harris

Flint Bishop—Charlotte Harris

Sheffield expansion continues with appointment of commercial property partner

Browne Jacobson—Paul Duggan

Browne Jacobson—Paul Duggan

Browne Jacobson strengthens banking and finance practice with latest partner appointment Paul Duggan

Ward Hadaway—Chris Piggott

Ward Hadaway—Chris Piggott

Employment partner joins Ward Hadaway

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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