The success fees charged by lawyers in defamation cases will be cut by 90% after justice secretary Jack Straw laid an order to amend the laws on ‘no win, no fee’ agreements.

From April the maximum uplift charged by lawyers for winning defamation cases taken on under conditional fee agreements will be reduced from 100% to 10% of their original fee, subject to parliamentary approval.

The Ministry of Justice said the amendment is designed to prevent legal costs in defamation cases spiralling out of control. It follows its four-week consultation ‘Controlling costs in defamation proceedings’, which was published in January.

Straw said the move would ‘help level the playing field’ so that journalists and writers can continue to publish articles that are in the public interest without incurring disproportionate legal bills.

He said the change would rebalance the system ‘so it is affordable for the press to defend defamation cases, while still ensuring access to justice for those who feel they have been defamed’.

It should, he added, ‘go a long way towards securing the freedom of scientific exchange and our tradition of investigative journalism, which are so fundamental to the protection of our democracy in this country’.
 


‘This is a swift solution to an immediate problem, a problem which has been recognised by the Science and Technology Committee and the Culture Media and Sport Committee, as well as by Lord Justice Jackson in his wide-ranging review of civil litigation costs,’ said Straw.