Damages-based agreements (or DBAs), under which a lawyer can receive an agreed percentage of any damages in the event of success, were introduced to civil litigation in England and Wales in 2013 as part of the Jackson reforms. But the take-up of DBAs has been slow, in large part due to a lack of clarity in the Damages-Based Agreements Regulations 2013 which govern the regime.
One of the areas that has caused some confusion is whether a DBA can include a clause providing for payment on some other basis (for example, hourly rates) if the DBA is terminated, or whether including such a term will render the DBA invalid. The High Court has recently given judgment upholding a DBA despite the presence of such a clause, in Lexlaw Ltd v Zuberi [2020] EWHC 1855 (Ch).
Maura McIntosh has published a post on Practical Law’s Dispute Resolution blog which considers the decision and the way forward for DBA reform. Click here to read the post (or here for the Practical Law Dispute Resolution blog homepage).
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