Discounted fees in a CCFA

Gloucestershire County Council v Evans and others [2008] EWCA Civ 21; NLJ 8 February p219

Did a collective conditional fee agreement (CCFA) containing a provision for the payment of discounted fees, if the action were lost, comply with the requirements of s58 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 as amended? In the agreement ‘basic charges’ were defined as the legal representative’s charges for the legal work done on the claimant’s claim at the rate of £145 per hour. ‘Discounted charges’ were defined as the legal representative’s charges at the rate of £95 per hour if the client ‘loses’. ‘Success fee’ was defined as the ‘percentage of basic charges which the legal representative adds to the basic charges if the client wins the claim, also referred to as the percentage increase’. The agreement provided that the ‘success fee is set as a percentage of the basic charges and shall be as set out in the written statement referred to in clause 3a hereof’. The percentage as set out in the written statement was 100%, being the maximum permitted by s58(4)(c) of the Act.