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Legal Skills And Procedures Essay

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EGEDE ESTHER OSINACHI 1400547 esther.egede@buckingham.ac.uk LEGAL SKILLS AND PROCEDURES ESSAY FOR JULY 2014 ‘‘The Master of the Rolls instructed Lord Justice Jackson to ‘review the rules and principles governing the costs of civil litigation and to make recommendations in order to promote access to justice at proportionate cost’. How far and to what extent do you think the objectives of the civil justice review have been achieved?’’ The English Legal system is a common law system; its study applies to the powers, procedures and activities of the group of courts and statutory tribunals in England and Wales and the people who work in it. It is divided into the civil and criminal courts, and is responsible for the administration …show more content…

The objectives of the civil justice review and its content is a coherent package of interlocking reforms and recommendations aimed at controlling these costs which compared to the damages or debts at stake had become ridiculous. Furthermore, it recommended ways of promoting access to justice at a proportionate cost. It also required the reviewing of case management procedures; having regard to research into costs and funding; to consult widely and compare the British civil litigation costs regime with those of other jurisdictions; and to prepare a report setting out recommendations with supporting evidence. The primary costs recommendations are: recoverability of success fees and After The Event insurance premiums abolished, the general level of damages increased by 10%, introduction of the regime of qualified and one way cost shifting (QOCS), capping lawyers deduction for success fees to 25% of damages, banning purchasing of cases and payment of referral fees by lawyers, and moving to fixed costs in fast track personal injury cases. In considering the achievement of the objectives of the Jackson reforms, there has to be knowledge of the period before its introduction – the Woolf reform period- and its current state to see what impact it has had on the cost of litigation. The

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