Those charming chaps who create the Queen’s Counsel cartoon strip have very kindly given us permission to use some of their cartoons on this blog. Many of you are no doubt already familiar with this excellent strip that appears in the law pages of The Times newspaper and pokes fun at lawyers and the law.
Why not pop over to their website: Queen’s Counsel to view more of their cartoons? Even better, buy their latest collection at Amazon.
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In a time of global recession, some good news for personal injury lawyers and, in due course, law costs draftsmen and other costs professionals in the announcement that clinical negligence payouts by the NHS in England are expected to rise by 80% next year.
The BBC reports that Steve Walker, chief executive of the NHS Litigation Authority, said part of the increase was prompted by a recent ruling in the Court of Appeal – the Thompstone judgment – which changes the way that payments for care are calculated.
He also said the move to more “no win no fee” cases had increased costs “dramatically” because it meant that solicitors were picking their cases carefully.
“The proportion of successful claims has gone up and is rising,” he said.
“Legal practices are businesses and why not try and double your income for the same amount of work.”
A couple of tips for girls on this forum as to how to cut legal costs. Yes, apparently these tips are specifically for “girls”. Don’t ask why I was visiting this site. And, to be fair, the advice is probably spot on: How to cut legal costs. (Link to external site.)
The limit for claims allocated to the fast track is to be raised from £15,000 to £25,000 for proceedings issued on or after 6 April 2009.
As a consequence of this change, the fixed fast track trial costs recoverable by counsel, or other advocate, will increase to £1,650 for claims with a value of more than £15,000 where the claim is issued on or after 6 April 2009.
It will be important to keep an eye on the date proceedings were therefore issued. If a claim was issued before 6 April 2009, is allocated to the fast-track and the damages recovered are more than £15,000 the old maximum amount of £1,035 will continue to apply.