Insurance premiums in conditional fee cases could double, says law firm

Typically, after-the-event (ATE) insurance policies are sold to protect claimants against the defendant’s costs should they lose the case. In Carver the claimant won her case, recovering damages and beating a previous Part 36 offer, but the Court of Appeal agreed with the judge at first instance that because the win was by a marginal amount only she would be treated for the purposes of costs as if she had failed to beat the offer.

Maurice Nichols, insurance specialist at Browne Jacobson,