Judiciary of England and Wales Preliminary Report on Civil Litigation Costs

Lord Justice Jackson has just released a preliminary report for the Judiciary of England and Wales on the costs of civil litigation.

This is in preparation for a consultation that will lead to a final report in December 2009.

According to the terms of reference of this Civil Litigation Costs Review, Lord Justice Jackson will:

• Establish how present costs rules operate and how they impact on the behaviour of both parties and lawyers.
• Establish the effect case management procedures have on costs and consider whether changes in process and/or procedure could bring about more proportionate costs.
• Have regard to previous and current research into costs and funding issues; for example any further Government research into Conditional Fee Agreements - ‘No win, No fee’, following the scoping study.
• Seek the views of judges, practitioners, Government, court users and other interested parties through both informal consultation and a series of public seminars.
• Compare the costs regime for England and Wales with those operating in other jurisdictions.

Earlier Library Boy posts on the costs of justice in the Canadian context include:

• Canadian Civil Justice Reform Database (Library Boy, August 11, 2007): "The Canadian Forum on Civil Justice at the University of Alberta has created what it calls a knowledgebase of civil justice reforms in Canada: 'The Inventory contains descriptions of reform initiatives from across the country, each described according to a standard format that includes information on the purpose, development, implementation, and evaluation of the reform. The initial focus of our research over the summer of 2007 is selected issues relating to the cost of access to justice: point-of-entry assistance, caseflow management, expert evidence, discovery, and proportionality'."
• Ontario Civil Justice Reform Project Report Published (November 24, 2007): "In June 2006, the government had asked the Honourable Coulter Osborne, a former Associate Chief Justice of Ontario, to propose recommendations to make the province's civil justice system more accessible and affordable (...) The summary report contains 81 recommendations touching on 18 areas of procedural and substantive law, including unrepresented litigants, small claims, trial management, appeals, technology, courtroom civility and proportionality."
• Canadian Judicial Council Report on Improving Access to Justice (June 27, 2008): "The report, which focuses on the civil and family justice systems, identifies five areas in which significant reforms aimed at addressing the cost of litigation have been undertaken in recent years in various Canadian jurisdictions ..."