CJC appoints local government lawyers to working party on Jackson Review implementation

Two local government lawyers have been appointed to a Civil Justice Council working party looking at the practical implementation of the Jackson Review of Civil Litigation Costs.

They are Mandy Knowlton-Rayner of Norfolk County Council and Hilary Homfray of Birmingham City Council.

The working party is chaired by Alistair Kinley, head of policy development at national law firm Berrymans Lace Mawer. Other members are drawn from private practice firms (both claimant and defendant), barristers’ chambers, insurers (including legal expenses insurers), unions and corporates.

The group will help develop practical proposals to assist with implementation of secondary legislation (regulations, court rules) in relation to:

• Qualified one way costs shifting – atypical cases and behavioural aspects
• Introduction of an additional sanction/reward under Part 36
• The detail of the proportionality test – content of a Practice Direction – examples of when the test should not be applied.

In its response paper, published in March 2011, the Ministry of Justice set out those measures from the Jackson Review that it intended to take forward.

The working party will not look at revisiting the policy objectives, but instead focus on the practical measures required to give effect to the proposals.

The drafting of any secondary legislation will be a matter for the Civil Procedure Rule Committtee and/or Government lawyers “and is outside the party’s remit”, the MoJ said.

The Civil Justice Council is to convene a workshop involving experienced practitioners. These will include claimant/defendant experts in all key civil law areas affected by the Jackson proposals “such as personal injury, clinical negligence, housing, defamation, nuisance, actions against the police, and judicial review”.

Philip Hoult