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That Was Then, This Is Now: What Has Changed?

Temple at APIL

(Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 49 seconds)

Funding, fixed fees, delegation, mediation and costs delays were on delegate’s minds in a very busy two days at this conference. Below is an update on some of the issues discussed at the conference –

The importance of funding – the strongest level of interest and feedback was regarding disbursement funding – definitely a current driver for those law firms contemplating changing their ATE insurance provider. This continues to remain an important subject.

Fixed fees – we sensed frustration that the fixed fee cost regime is not finalised; yet at the same time no one wanted to ‘rock the boat’, with most delegates at present being happy with the status quo. This continues to be unresolved and, with the PI reforms having been further delayed due to the pandemic, this is something which is likely to continue for some time.

Backlog in costs payments – frustration was also voiced by many of those present about the two so-called ‘October’ cases in which the Paying Party were citing at every instance for a stay in cost proceedings; disappointingly the rulings were not felt to be imminent when the discussions took place in early October. The view was that this is creating, not unsurprisingly, a large backlog in costs payments waiting on the outcome of these rulings. The ruling on these cases was received in July 2019 with a successful outcome for the receiving parties.

Delegated Authority schemes – Temple provided a lot of information about our ATE insurance products, including explaining how specialist clinical negligence law firms are able to run fully delegated ATE insurance schemes with integrated disbursement funding.

ADR for clinical negligence – the issue of mediation for medical accident claims seemed on the back burner for some delegates, but we felt developments were inevitable resulting from The Civil Justice Council’s imminent publication of their final report on ADR and clinical negligence. Mediation has since become increasingly utilised in clinical negligence cases and the upward trend we anticipate will continue. The Temple Legal Protection ATE insurance policy now includes a reduction in your client’s premium should the case settle at mediation.

If you would like to discuss any of the topics above please call on 01483 514808 or email david.stoker@temple-legal.co.uk.