Harbour Lecture by Lord Dyson MR: Confronting Costs Management

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The Jackson Report was a brilliant piece of work. It was the product of a huge amount of research. But there is no substitute for testing civil justice reforms in the crucible of the real world of civil litigation. This was a luxury that was denied to Sir Rupert apart from a few pilots. We do now have the benefit of seeing how the reforms have been working in practice. In many respects, the cost management aspects of the reforms have been successful. I greatly welcome the fact that the percentage of cases (other than personal injury and clinical negligence cases) in which costs budgets are agreed is steadily rising; and that, for the most part, solicitors are not collaborating to agree inflated budgets.