Dowler family opposes changes to 'no win, no fee'
updated on 03 October 2011
The family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler has appealed to the government to rethink the proposed reforms of 'no win, no fee' arrangements contained in its Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LAPSO) Bill. In a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, the Dowler family pointed out that without a 'no win, no fee' arrangement it would not have been able to bring its claim against News International for phone hacking and that the reforms could leave "thousands of people" unable to bring cases against news organisations.
The letter - as reported in Legal Week and elsewhere - states: "We understand that the new law will affect thousands of people who want to sue News International and other newspapers. We had understood that you were on the side of the people not the press. Please do not change the law so that the ability to sue the papers is lost. We are sure that you do not want to go down in history as the prime minister who took rights away from ordinary people so that large companies could print what they like and break the law without being able to challenge them."
The reforms contained in LAPSO are set to abolish the recoverability of success fees and associated costs in conditional fee arrangements, leaving claimants liable to pay their lawyers' success fees.
