Judge calls for end to 'no win, no fee'

So-called "claims farmers" should be banned from selling personal injury cases to lawyers for a fee, a senior judge said yesterday.

Lord Justice Jackson said the current structure of so-called "no-win no-fee agreements" was not benefiting the public.

His review called for radical changes to the way costs are decided in all civil cases in England and Wales.

Millions would be saved if ministers implement the proposals, the Court of Appeal judge said.

In some personal injury cases a "costs war" has pushed fees paid to barristers and solicitors to more than 1000 per cent of the damages, his year-long study found.

Libel cases would also be affected by the changes, with celebrities who win claims against newspapers and magazines forced to pay lawyers' fees from their payout.

Currently the defendants must pay the winning side's lawyers' "success fee". On top of other payments it can leave them with a total bill of four times the actual cost of the action.

More families should buy legal insurance to cover their costs in the case of "nuisance" rows with their neighbours, the report said.

Lord Justice Jackson, a Court of Appeal judge, criticised the "escalation" of referral fees in no-win no-fee cases paid to claims management companies since the introduction of the Access to Justice Act in 1999.

He said: "The focus of our litigation process should be upon compensating victims, not upon making payments to intermediaries and others who have moved in recent years into the personal injury compensation process."

The review found no-win no-fee cases, also known as Conditional Fee Arrangements, led to huge increases in civil litigation costs in recent years.

It recommends overall payouts for damages should increase by 10 per cent at the same time to make sure claimants are properly compensated.