The government has now ruled out an amendment to the current regulations to allow so called “no win, low fee” contingency agreements.

Since the introduction of Lord Justice Jackson’s reforms in April 2013, clients have been able to fund litigation using DBAs. A DBA is an agreement between a client and their lawyer pursuant to which the client agrees to pay their lawyer a percentage of the damages recovered in the claim.

One criticism of the new DBA has been that there was no ability to enter into a “hybrid” agreement whereby only some of the client’s liability to pay their lawyer’s fees is contingent on the outcome of the claim.

The government has however announced that there will not be any provision for hybrid agreements in their forthcoming review of the regulations which has come as a surprise to many who had expected this omission to be addressed when the regulations were reviewed.

The news will come as a blow to many litigants as it was anticipated that the option of a hybrid DBA would be more attractive to lawyers and thereby increasing the funding options open to clients to help achieve greater access to justice.

Should you have any queries regarding the funding options available at Hunters please contact the partner at Hunters having responsibility for your legal matters or, for new enquiries, a member of the Dispute Resolution department.