Public Liability and Highways Claims Post-Jackson: Part 36 and Litigation Tactics - Andrew Mckie, Clerksroom
24/05/14. Chapter two from the new book 'Occupiers, Highways and Defective Premises Claims: A Practical Guide Post-Jackson' by Andrew Mckie. This chapter deals with using the new amendments to the CPR post April 2013 and post July 2013, when the Jackson reforms came into effect to a) vet cases early on, b) obtain disclosure quickly, and c) settling the case before it gets to trial, and how Part 36 can encourage that.
CHAPTER TWO
PUBLIC LIABILITY AND HIGHWAYS CLAIMS POST-JACKSON: PART 36 AND LITIGATION TACTICS
It is clear that in relation to post-Jackson, post 31 July 2013 highways and public liability cases, the incentives for defendants and insurers to settle these cases has now been substantially reduced. These cases are now subject to portal and fixed recoverable costs, and as we have seen from the previous chapter the insurer can now run three or four of these claims to trial and lose them, for effectively the same costs as running one CFA claim to trial, with a 100% uplift under the pre-Jackson regime and losing that at trial.
This new litigation landscape of course poses enormous difficulties for claimant lawyers. The ‘50/50’ cases that previously may have been issued and then settled, before trial. This is no longer likely to happen. This means that law firms, more than ever, will have to be careful to vet claims more carefully before taking them on. To run a profitable department post-Jackson, the majority of claims will have to succeed, given there is no longer the flexibility of CFA uplifts to cushion the shortfalls of the cases that are...
Image ©iStockphoto.com/funky-data
![Appeal judge rules that credit hire company has no costs liability following a finding of fundamental dishonesty in personal injury case: RSA v. Fastrack Solutions Limited [2023] 4 WLUK 92 - David Bowden, Erimus Chambers](/content/images/resized/images/stories/carkeys_72_72.jpg)
