Engineer's Guide to PI Claims Part 8: Litigation risk

摘要

Proceeding to trial is generally unattractive for claimants and defendant engineers alike (although some jurisdictions are more claimant-friendly than others). There have been some positive developments for defendants in recent years, including a change in the law in England and Wales which makes it impossible for claimants' solicitors to charge heavily inflated fees in the event of success (which, in turn, would be recovered from the losing party). Previously, the effect of those arrangements in a "no win, no fee" culture had been that claimants were able to run their cases all the way to trial with disproportionately low risks as regards their own legal costs. In fairness, there can ultimately be very genuine reasons why the parties have not managed to conclude matters between themselves and why, therefore, a full-blown trial is the only remaining route available to them. The bottom line, as this article seeks to illustrate, is simply that if they do go down that route, then they should be prepared for all possible outcomes.