The Government has dropped plans to extend incoming access to justice provisions beyond personal injury (PI) as the debate over the implementation of the Jackson reforms to civil litigation costs continues.

The Government earlier this month confirmed that it had rejected proposals to usher in so-called 'qualified one-way costs-shifting' (QOCS) beyond PI claims during a Parliamentary debate on the new civil justice bill.

The access to justice provision QOCS is designed to protect claimants of limited means having to pay the other side's costs if their claim fails, and is set to be implemented for PI claims in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPO).

The Government had been considering extending such costs protection beyond PI claims, raising the possibility that it would have been introduced for areas such as professional negligence or libel.

The move was part of proposed reforms to the civil litigation costs regime put forward by Lord Justice Jackson in his 2010 report, which has been largely adopted under the LASPO bill.

The wider reforms will limit the 'loser pays' model in civil litigation so that success fees and associated insurance costs in 'no win, no fee' litigation will be paid by claimants, not the losing party. Supporters argue that the shake-up in litigation funding will give claimants an incentive to control costs and clamp down on aggressive litigation.

Responding to a House of Lords committee debate last week on the LASPO bill, justice minister Lord McNally (pictured) said: "Lord Justice Jackson suggested that QOCS might be considered for introduction in some non-PI claims as an alternative to recoverable [litigation costs] insurance. The Government are not persuaded that the case for this has been made at this stage."

The move will be welcomed by defendant lawyers, who argued that extending the QOCS model beyond PI would stoke trivial claims.

Kennedys personal injury partner Tracy Head commented: "If QOCS were to extend to, for example, professional indemnity cases then the enhanced costs of defending such a claim would force defendants to compromise unmeritorious claims – thereby encouraging the flow of such cases."

The news comes after the Government announced a six-month delay to the introduction of LASPO bill last month, with the new legislation now set to come into effect in April 2013. The decision has been taken to allow law firms and legal businesses more time to prepare themselves for the implications of the shake-up.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) today (9 February) unveiled plans aimed at reducing the number of claims going through the civil courts.

The package will raise the value of non-personal injury claims that can be heard in the High Court from £25,000 to £100,000. In addition, disputes involving equity will only be referred to the High Court where the property is valued at more than £350,000, against a current level of £30,000.

The MoJ is also to double the size of civil claims that can be handled in the county court to £10,000 with a further consultation on raising the level to £15,000.