Litigation

William Hughes and Bobbie Cheema outline the raison d’être of the Kalisher Scholarship Foundation 

Cuts to the legal aid budget preceded the global banking crisis and the age of austerity, and over the past ten years the number of pupillages has nosedived, from 695 in 2000 to 450 in 2010/11. Given the increasing difficulty in securing a publicly-funded pupillage the Kalisher trustees, together with professional training outfit Jo Ouston and Co, recently ran the first Kalisher presentation skills course. 

civil litigation

One of the first cases to be dealt with under the Defamation Proceedings Costs Management Scheme, under which costs budgets are prepared in advance and adhered to, has ended with the successful claimant facing costs of up to £300,000.

Profession

The courts can anticipate some satellite litigation next year as the Jackson reforms on cost and proportionality bed in, according to Lord Neuberger, the Master of the Rolls.  Lord Neuberger, in a lecture on the implementation of the Jackson reforms, at the Law Society in May, said it would be “positively dangerous” for him to give detailed guidance on proportionate costs as the law would need to be developed on a case by case basis.

Civil Litigation

The Civil Justice Council (CJC) has published its much-anticipated Code of Conduct for Litigation Funders and the Rules of the Association for the Association of Litigation Funders in England and Wales. The Rules require every member of the Association of Litigation Funders for England and Wales to abide by the Code to the extent that it applies to them.

Profession

The Civil Justice Council (CJC) has predicted a rise in the number of litigants in person and set out a series of steps to tackle the challenges this will present.

Civil Litigation

Michael Todd QC, Chairman-elect of the Bar Council, is to set up a working group in the New Year to draw up proposals to modernise civil litigation.

Matthew Amey looks at the removal of recoverability of success fees and ATE insurance premiums, and the impact this will have on commercial litigation counsel

Losing recoverability means losing control. Over the past decade, not all barristers have  embraced the idea of sharing risk with their clients through conditional fee arrangements (‘CFAs’). Indeed, some  felt that it adversely affected their independence when providing advice to the client, particularly with regard to settlement offers. 

Gray’s Inn was the setting for a stirring debate on libel reform in January. The timing was perfect. The Coalition Government was due to publish its draft Defamation Bill and Nick Clegg, only days before the debate, set out the Government’s commitment to libel reform, saying: “Our aim is to turn English Libel laws from an international laughing stock to an international blueprint”.

Chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, the five panellists covered a wide range of issues including: access to justice; the impact of libel reform on UK tabloids; how should libel law draw a distinction between the defamation claims against a blogger with a dozen readers and the defamation claims against a newspaper with millions of readers? 

Civil litigation

A Bar Council working group has been set up to explore the viability of a Contingency Legal Aid Fund (CLAF) in the wake of the government’s announcement on civil litigation costs.

Job titles
Chief Executive and Senior Civil Clerk, 9 Gough Square Chambers

A leading common law set based in London but appearing in courts throughout England and Wales and abroad. Key practice areas are personal injury, clinical negligence, professional negligence, fraud and serious crime, family, police law, employment and property.