TAKING A CUT? Reflections On Belsner V Cam Legal Services Ltd

Mr Justice Lavender's recent decision in Belsner v Cam Legal Services Ltd [2020] EWHC 2755 (QB) is the latest blow to solicitors representing claimants in the volume personal injury market. Already under siege from lawyers representing former claimants demanding refunds on allegedly excessive success fees, in Belsner Lavender J held that the effect of s 74(3) of the Solicitors Act 1974 ('s 74(3)'/'SA 1974') was that no deductions at all could be made from the client's damages, even though the client had entered a retainer which expressly authorised that. This contractual provision, the judge held, did not give the 'informed consent' which he held was required under CPR 46.9(2) in order to disapply s 74(3).