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London Solicitors Litigation Association

Welcome to the LSLA E-Newsletter. This month we update you on some of our recent events and future activities and feature issues which might affect and interest you. As always, for more detail please visit our website by clicking here

LSLA News

LSLA Annual Dinner – 18 November 2008
The LSLA Annual Dinner took take place on 18 November 2008 at the Law Society. The evening was a great success with entertaining and informative speeches being given by Mr Justice Peter Smith and Ms Catrin Griffiths, Editor of the Lawyer. The remarks of Mr Justice Peter Smith that some “out – of –touch” Appeal Judges were responsible for the recurrence of long trials reflected findings made in the Commercial Court Long Trials Working Party Report and have been reported in the legal press. To see the article which appeared in the Lawyer on Monday 24 November visit http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=135787

Autumn Lecture Series
A further two lectures took place this month from our Autumn series. Duncan Matthews QC of 20 Essex Street delivered an informative lecture entitled “To challenge or not to challenge – is your decision maker biased or not?” and Mark Phillips QC, of 3-4 South Square spoke on the ever timely topic of “Credit Crunch or Credit Crash? Identifying and finding the solutions”.

The remaining lecture within our series is:

• Wednesday 26 November 2008: Laurie Rabinowitz QC, One Essex Court “Interpretation of Contracts and the admissibility of evidence of subjective intention”.

For a further details and to apply for tickets click here.

Further consultation on Commercial Court practice reforms
The Commercial Court Long Trials Working Party is settling a questionnaire to be sent out to various Associations and groups of professionals with a view to collating feedback on the trial period of the reforms. The intention is to obtain coordinated feedback directed at specific topics and issues which can then be pulled together to build up as good a picture of the experience of the reforms as possible. The LSLA will be circulating the questionnaire to its members and we would ask all representatives of member firms to be ready to obtain input from their colleagues with a view to feeding answers to the questionnaire back to the working party by mid to late January 2009. In the meantime discussion groups are already being organised by the City of London Law Society amongst others

Recent Press
In addition to the article in the Lawyer earlier this week, the LSLA and its president, David Greene have recently appeared in several other journals and upon Radio 4, including:

• 3 Oct – New Law Journal (comments from David Greene on the Rolls Building)
• 4 Oct – FT Weekend (Reader Q on retirement and redundancy by Amy Barker) http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f5e0e198-91ac-11dd-b5cd-0000779fd18c.html?nclick_check=1
• 6 Oct – The Lawyer (comments from David Greene on the Rolls Building) http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=135042
• 14 Oct – Solicitors Journal (article by David Greene on CJC’s recommendations for collective actions)
• 18 Nov – BBC Radio 4 ‘Law in Action’ (Quote from David Greene broadcast on court funding)
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/law_in_action/7735394.stm
• 24 Nov – The Lawyer (mention of the LSLA annual dinner) http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=135787

For further details click on the links provided.

Legal News

Proposed Practice Direction on Pre-Action Behaviour (“the PD”)
The Ministry of Justice recently invited comments on the PD which is intended to replace the current Practice Direction on Protocols (“PDP”) and to supplement Part 3 CPR (the Court’s Case Management Powers). The proposal is intended, with one exception, to replicate the existing provisions of the PDP “but with clearer language and structure” to assist litigants in person. The exception relates to debts claims by businesses against individuals. The LSLA’s response is summarised as follows:

• We see no need for or substantial benefit arising from the PD
• The changes proposed are not supported by majority of respondents to the previous consultations on pre-action provisions as published by the CJC on 8 October 2008
• There is no evidence that the PDP s letting down or disadvantaging litigants in person, or that the proposed changes would help them
• If the principal objective of the proposals is to help litigants in relation to debt claims then a proposal focussed specifically on debt claims would be more appropriate than the current proposals
• The proposals are in danger of over-emphasising ADR as the answer to all disputes

A full copy of the Response can be viewed by clicking here.

Inquiry into Costs Issues
Further to the report in our July E-Newsletter, the Master of the Rolls, Sir Anthony Clarke, has appointed Lord Justice Jackson to lead the inquiry into costs issues. Legal Week reported that the review into the “rules and principles governing the costs of civil litigation” will begin in January and will report to the Master of the Rolls in December 2009. Lord Justice Jackson will be assisted in his task by a group made up of members of the judiciary, the legal profession and an economist.

The LSLA is forming up a sub-committee to ensure that the views of its members are presented to the inquiry.

Contingency Fees
The Civil Justice Council recently published a research paper on contingency fees including a study of their operation in the USA. The research was prompted by amongst other matters the finding of the CJC in its report concerning “The Future Funding of Litigation – Alternative Funding Structures” (June 2007) that “in multi party cases where no other form of funding is available, regulated contingency fees should be permitted to provide access to justice” and concern expressed by the Master of the Rolls that contingency fees should be considered as a funding alternative.

The paper concluded that should CFAs fail “contingency fees, either with or without costs shifting could operate effectively in the England and Wales jurisdiction” to improve access to justice.

To see the report visit:
http://www.civiljusticecouncil.gov.uk/files/cjc-contingency-fees-report-11-11-08.pdf