Judgment has recently been handed down by the Court of Appeal in three test cases brought by NHS Resolution which could potentially save taxpayers many millions of pounds. Clyde & Co was involved with one of these cases.
One of NHS Resolution's key strategies is to tackle excessive Claimant legal costs. NHS Resolution identified a pattern of claimants being moved by lawyers from legal aid to no-win no-fee funding, just prior to changes in the costs rules resulting from the 'LASPO' reforms in April 2013. NHS Resolution argued that this was not in the interests of harmed patients due to the deduction which would be made from their damages and the significantly higher costs which their lawyers could claim from the NHS.
In three separate cases of S v Barnet and Chase Farm Hospital NHS Trust, AH v Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust (in which Clyde & Co acted for the Defendant) and Y v Doncaster & Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the costs judges agreed, ruling that solicitors had failed to provide material advice to their clients, or that the advice given was flawed in a material way.
When these three rulings were overturned, NHS Resolution sought clarity from the Court of Appeal, whose unanimous ruling can be found here. At paragraph 60 LJ Lewison says:
The bottom line is that in each of the three cases the advice given to the client had exaggerated (and in two cases misrepresented) the disadvantages of remaining with legal aid funding; and had omitted entirely any mention of the certain disadvantage of entering into a CFA. Moreover, one of the advantages of entering into the CFA was Irwin Mitchell's own prospective entitlement to a substantial success fee."
In these 3 cases the amount saved for the NHS was approximately £270,000 in legal costs, but there are many more similar cases so the savings will potentially be in the millions.
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