These proposals are designed to help people and organisations of modest means to be able to bring and defend defamation and privacy claims without the fear of having to pay unaffordable legal costs to the other side if they lose.
Costs protection protects parties from the costs that they might have to pay to the other side in civil litigation. Our proposals are designed to help people and organisations of modest means to be able to bring and defend defamation and privacy claims without the fear of having to pay unaffordable legal costs to the other side if they lose.
The consultation also proposes that those of substantial means (whether individuals or organisations, such as national newspapers) would be excluded from the costs protection regime, while those of less modest means might have to pay something towards the legal costs of the other side if they lose.
The Government hopes to introduce the new costs protection regime through changes to the Civil Procedure Rules in April 2014, at the same time as fully implementing no-win-no-fee reforms.
The consultation is aimed at people and organisations with an interest in defamation and privacy proceedings in England and Wales.