Libel reformer Lord Lester has called on the government to take ‘urgent action’ on the ‘scandal’ of 100% success fees charged by lawyers working on conditional fee agreements (CFAs) in defamation actions.

The barrister and Liberal Democrat peer asked justice minister Lord McNally last week if the government intends to use powers in section 58(4) of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 to reduce the maximum success fee chargeable under CFAs in defamation proceedings.

Lester said the minister should take ‘urgent action to deal with what I think is a scandal, where some of my profession charge inordinate fees through the CFA so that the costs far outweigh any damages.’

A Labour government’s attempt to cap at 10% the maximum uplift charged on success was abandoned by leader of the Commons Harriet Harman before the election.

Lord McNally said the government would consider the report on civil costs by Lord Justice Jackson before deciding what action to take. ‘Whether we will follow the same path as the previous administration is more questionable,’ he said.

McNally said there should be a limit on success fees or, as suggested by barrister and crossbench peer Lord Pannick, that they should be borne by the successful claimant.

‘We have to get the balance right between the access to justice that conditional fees give and some of the anomalies and indeed abuses that have grown up in practice,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Steven Heffer, a partner at London firm Collyer Bristow, has written to justice secretary Kenneth Clarke QC on behalf of Lawyers for Media Standards, a group opposed to the capping proposal, to voice its concerns.

But Marcus Partington, chair of the Media Lawyers Association, said: ‘The recovery of success fees in media cases is a breach of article 10; does not contribute to proper access to justice; and leads to the unjust enrichment of claimant lawyers.’