A working party led by Irwin Mitchell chairman Michael Napier QC has been launched by the Civil Justice Council (CJC) to explore issues surrounding changes to contingency fees set to come into play next year.

The 11-member panel, which met for the first time yesterday (17 April), has been asked to consider the conflicting interests regarding damage-based agreements (DBAs) and make any recommendations over regulations that should be introduced.

DBAs, part of the Jackson reforms of civil litigation costs, are a form of contingency fee that will allow lawyers to claim a portion of the claimant's damages as a success fee in contentious cases.

The working party also includes 4 New Square's Nicholas Bacon QC, McGuireWoods partner Hardeep Nahal, Solicitors Regulation Authority executive director Richard Collins, Keoghs strategy director Don Clarke, Peter Douglas of the Bar Standards Board and Edwin Coe senior partner David Greene.

The group is also set to consider issues including: whether a lawyer acting under a DBA should be liable for adverse costs; the possibility of partial DBAs; and whether there should be an obligation to notify opposing parties if lawyers have entered into a DBA.

The panel is due to report its findings to the CJC by the end of July this year before they are then presented to the Ministry of Justice.

The move comes ahead of the introduction of the Jackson reforms contained within the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill in April 2013, which will see the abolition of the recoverability of success fees and associated costs in 'no win, no fee' conditional fee arrangements, with claimants to pay their lawyers' success fees instead.

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