Media CFAs

At the IBA conference international media claims management session, Alistair Pepper said that no UK media law firm had been able to make conditional fee agreements work properly by achieving overall costs neutrality because the problem with defamation is that when a claimant loses, it tends to be late on or at the end of proceedings after large costs have been incurred, whereas publishers settle successful cases far earlier. ‘You need a huge number of wins to compensate for the losers.’ He suggested the key for defendants was to have lawyers who moved quickly to decide whether or not to settle – many of his cases settled within hours. ‘A success fee on not very much is not very much.’ His firm, Carter-Ruck, operates a staged success fee of 25% pre-issue, 50% post-issue up to 45 days before trial, and 100% thereafter; the after-the-event insurance is similarly stepped. ATE insurance is taken out at the outset when premiums are relatively modest – a few thousand pounds for up to £100,000 cover. Thereafter, the premium could be 40–60% of the sum insured.