Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make it his policy to reform the legal system to ensure that one side does not bear the financial risk associated with taking a case to trial and the other side cannot escape exposure to such risk through Damages Based Agreements and Conditional Fee Agreements.

Substantial reforms have been made over recent years to control the costs of civil litigation, and to deter fraudulent and unmeritorious claims. In particular, the operation of ‘no win no fee’ conditional fee agreements (CFAs) has been improved by Part 2 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012. The Part 2 reforms, which came into effect in April 2013, also allowed Damages-Based Agreements (DBAs) to be used in civil litigation for the first time.

CFAs and DBAs facilitate access to justice by enabling claims to be brought by those of modest means. The Government recognises that access to justice has to be meaningful for defendants too: the Part 2 and other reforms help to ensure that claims are resolved at more proportionate cost, with the risk of litigation now being borne by claimants rather than defendants, who no longer having to pay inflated legal costs.

The Government is committed to carrying out a post-implementation review of Part 2 of the LASPO Act, to be completed by summer recess 2018.