The Supreme Court Costs Office

No.6 of 2007

Various Claimants v Gower Chemicals

20 February 2007

Field J

This appeal from the Master concerned the application of Regulation 5(1) of the Collective Conditional Fee Agreements Regulations 2000 to a CCFA between the claimants’ trade union and their solicitors. The defendants contended that the CCFA did not comply with Regulation 5(1) in that a legal representative had not performed the obligation to prepare and retain a document containing the prescribed risk assessment and the amount of the success fee.

Upholding the Master, Field J held that it was sufficient that the CCFA itself contained a conforming provision (viz the risk assessment and level of success fee). Regulation 5(1) does not additionally require that the prescribed condition must be performed. Accordingly the actual preparing and retaining of a conforming risk assessment is not a requirement and a CCFA is not rendered unenforceable if the solicitor does not actually retain a conforming document.