Abstract
The introduction of conditional fees as a replacement for legal aid funding in money damage claims had a tortuous history — very few measures have had quite so many consultation papers and associated documents as the new government created policy, apparently on the hoof. Part of the policy problem was that John Major’s Conservative government was quite well advanced in making changes consequent on Lord Woolf’s Access to Justice Inquiry into civil justice.1 This was not contentious between the political parties. In the Consultation Paper of August 1977, Access to Justice: Civil Procedure Rules about Costs, new rules on costs were advanced. Out of 75 pages there is one page devoted to non-recoverable conditional fees. This is all about the client challenging the base costs and the success fee (uplift). This was a rare event, as the maximum uplift was limited to 100% under S58(2) Legal Services Act 1990 and, in turn, to 25% of damages.2
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