The government has asked the Civil Procedure Rule Committee to look at the rules governing the costs of holiday claims, with a view to creating a fixed recoverable costs regime to cover claims arising abroad, closing what travel bosses described as a loophole which some lawyers were exploiting.
Litigation often moves in trends and holiday sickness claims have become en vogue since the introduction of the Jackson reforms four years ago. Holiday sickness claims offered a lifeline to some firms who had traditionally relied on low value PI work prior to the Jackson reforms, because holiday claims are not limited to fixed costs.
Now it seems that the government is determined as part of an expansion of fixed costs generally, to close this loophole and bring holiday sickness claims into the ambit of fixed costs. As far as trends go, whilst holiday sickness claims will invariably now decline it seems that the next “big thing” will be cavity wall insulation claims-watch this space…
