the cons

• Legal fees are very high. Lawyers are generally unable to estimate their fees at the start of a case. in addition to this, the claimant may have to pay two amounts of fees because the loser of a civil case must pay the winner's costs. private funding of claims will be expensive and out of reach of many.
• For a lawyer to agree to a contractual fee agreement, they must be convinced that from the outset, there is a high chance of the claimant succeeding before an agreement is entered into.
• For a claimant to enter into a conditional fee agreement, they must take out an 'after the event' insurance policy, which can cost several hundred pounds. The premium is based on the chances of the claim succeeding
• The amount of compensation paid to the claimant will be reduced by the deduction of the lawyer's success fee, In a conditional fee agreement, which cannot be claimed from the loser of the case.
• Civil legal aid funding has been cut. At it's peak, the budget was just over one billion pounds in 2010, then in 2015 it fell to six hundred million pounds, and then had a slight rise to 739 million between 2018 and 2019. At the same time, the number of civil court claims has increased as more people are prepared to take action for the enforcement of their rights
• As a result of the lack of funding, there has been a rise in the number of litigants in person, which in turn has led to more delays in courts.
• With the cuts to funding and the expenses of using lawyers, more pressure is being put on advice agencies at a time when their budgets are already stretched. This means that there is a greater delay in people accessing legal advice.