Conditional Fees (Hansard, 16 July 1998)

§ The Lord Chancellor (Lord Irvine of Lairg)

I have today placed in the Libraries of both Houses a summary of the responses to the consultation paper. The Government remain committed to achieving the aims set out in the consultation paper of extending access to justice and beginning the process of refocusing legal aid to where it can do most good. I am grateful to all those who responded, all of whose comments have been carefully considered.

The Government have received wide support to extend conditional fees to all civil proceedings other than family cases and we are keen to proceed as quickly as possible. I have today laid a draft order for the approval of this House to extend conditional fees to all proceedings not excluded by statute. The draft order will be debated as soon as time can be found. For the longer term, the Government continue to believe the operation and fairness of conditional fees would be enhanced by making the success fee and insurance premium recoverable. We wish to consider this further before reaching any final decision but I am minded to seek the legislation to allow the success fees and insurance premiums to be recoverable as soon as possible.

Legal aid is in urgent need of reform and we shall begin the process of reform in a number of ways. First, 44WA we will ensure that assisted persons have access to suitably competent lawyers in medical negligence cases by using existing powers to direct clients towards specialist lawyers who hold franchise contracts with the Legal Aid Board. It will be a condition of holding a contract that the lawyers have shown themselves to be competent in this area of law. I have asked the Legal Aid Board to press ahead with putting in place the necessary contracts. I wish to see these contracts in place by January 1999. I have also directed them to establish a panel of lawyers of proven experience and expertise to whom preference would be given in awarding contracts for group actions and other related changes, as canvassed in the board's consultation paper When the Price is High published in June 1997.

In addition, I have asked the board to complete, by the end of 1999, not only the provision of civil advice and assistance exclusively through contracts, but also all family legal aid, including representation.

Finally, to achieve the maximum benefit from the money available, the Government are determined to ensure that legal aid is not spent in purchasing legal services where a suitable alternative exists. They believe that conditional fees provide a suitable alternative, particularly in a range of money claims. They recognise, however, that this alternative would be more attractive if the success fee and insurance premium were recoverable. For that reason, the Government are considering how quickly to move to a position where the kinds of money claims described in the consultation paper—in particular personal injury claims—are financed principally by conditional fee agreements. The Government would like to be able to move to this position by October 1999.