Law Costs To Fall: Terms and Conditions Apply
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- Published: Monday, 25 September 2023 09:54
- Written by Peter Ingle
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There may not be much for indemnifiers to celebrate, but one well trailed change for the better now has a start date. It’s progress towards the statute books does illustrate the increasingly unwieldly legislative environment that medicine and dentistry are trapped in.
A frequent complaint from those at the sharp end of dentolegal disputes is that the costs claimed, are often inflated. In all too many cases the headline figure of compensation received by the patient, is dwarfed by the costs paid to their legal representatives. Well known players in the dental claims market have established a formidable reputation for ramping up costs, which inevitably are returned to the profession in the shape of higher indemnity fees, and to the patients paying for professional services.
Against this background, the announcement by the Department of Health and Social Care that it would seek to establish fixed costs in lower value cases was a welcome development. When announced in January 2022 indemnifiers welcomed the move, although with the criticism that limiting this change to claims up to £25,000 had set the threshold too low.
The Government has now announced that fixed costs will be imposed on most claims from April 2024. According to the Law Society Gazette, the intention is that the lower damages clinical negligence claim FRC (LDFRC) scheme will come into force through secondary legislation and after approval by the Civil Procedure Rule Committee.
Commenting on the announcement, John Makin, Head of The Dental Defence Union (DDU) said: “We welcome that the government has finally responded to this much anticipated consultation, however, this development should only ever be seen as the start.
“The DDU has always believed that for this scheme to have a meaningful impact on rising clinical negligence costs, it should be far more ambitious. Rather than just applying to claims up to £25,000, it should include claims up to £250,000.
“However, this is an important first step given that disproportionate legal costs are one of several defects in the current litigation system and affect lower value claims.
“In DDU cases, during 2022 the average sum paid in claimants’ legal costs on dental claims settled for up to £10,000 was over £12,300, while for claims settled between £10,000 and £25,000, the average was around £21,000. It cannot be right for legal costs paid to claimants’ lawyers to regularly exceed the damages paid to claimants.”
Readers questioning why there has been a delay of over two years from announcement to enactment, will find the relevant GOV.UK pages dispiriting reading.
An 84 page consultation document was published in January 2022. It was accompanied by an Equality duty analysis (EDA), and Impact assessment (IA), covering another 45 pages. The consultation ran for 12 weeks.
Just published, the 100 page government response to the consultation, with another 59 pages of EDA and IA, was accompanied by a summary of the outcomes and a date for introduction.
Changes as a result of the consultation include: increased fixed costs at all stages of the process and excluding certain claims from the scheme on grounds of complexity. There will also be what is described as a “short” further consultation on disbursements.
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