Mirror Group Decision Could Prompt CFAs Demise

The European Court of Human Right’s decision in the Campbell v MGN case could pave the way for the end of the current Conditional Fee Arrangements, warns an insurance litigation expert.

The case itself centered on a breach of privacy by the Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) in relation to articles it published about Naomi Campbell’s drug addiction therapy. However the newspaper group’s challenge to recoverable success fees was upheld by the court.

MGN complained that it was obliged to pay unreasonably high court legal costs because of a “conditional fee arrangement” and, the “success fee” for which domestic law allowed. The Court focussed on the success fee which was recovered by Ms Campbell’s lawyers and accepted that such success fees were an interference with the Article 10 rights of the applicant.

Horwich Farrelly chief executive, Anthony Hughes commented on the decision. He said: “Although this case is purely focused on media law, we are interested to see what the implication is for CFAs in general.

“This decision is very powerful ammunition particularly for the proponents of the Jackson reforms and the Coalition Government will undoubtedly use this decision to further its argument about abolishing recoverability in other areas, specifically personal injury.”

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