Qualified One Way Costs Shifting: A Counter Fraud Perspective

Subject to any unforeseen delays, we are now just six months away from a regime of qualified one way costs shifting for personal injury claims. To those who might be unfamiliar with the notion of 'QOCS' this is an approach to civil litigation funding that prevents a defendant from recovering its costs from an unsuccessful claimant. It is one of a range of new measures that are set to be introduced from April 2013 onwards as part of the implementation of the proposals set out by Lord Justice Jackson. The 'trade off' with QOCS is that although defendants will be unable to recover their own costs even if successful save for very limited circumstances, they will benefit from other interlinked costs measures such as ATE insurance premiums and success fees no longer being recoverable from the defendant.