Martin Partington: Spotlight on the Justice System

I have noted elsewhere the fact that the Government has started a post-implementation review of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO). (See this blog, March 2018 and September 2018).

The principal focus is on changes to the legal aid scheme – Part 1 of the Act.

Part 2 of the Act introduced changes to the costs rules relating to civil litigation proposed in the review led by Lord Justice Jackson.

Progress with this review has been slower than with the legal aid review. But in June 2018, the Government published a short statement on how it thought the changes were going, and set out a number of questions on which it sought evidence from practitioners and other civil justice stakeholders.

The focus of the inquiry is on the five principal reforms contained in the Act. They are

• (i) non-recoverability of Conditional Fee Agreement success fees;
• (ii) non-recoverability of After the Event insurance premiums,
• (iii) the introduction of Damages-Based Agreements,
• (iv) section 55 changes to Part 36 offers to settle proceedings,
• (v) banning referral fees in personal injury cases.

The preliminary view of officials is that while their introduction was very contoversial, they are working pretty well in practice.

In June 2018, the Government has published an initial assessment together with a list of questions to which it hopes practitioners will respond during the summer of 2018. A further report will be published in due course.

The document is available at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/719140/pir-part-2-laspo-initial-assessment.pdf