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PI Brief Update

Flout the Rules and Find Out: The Unforgiving Nature of the DBA Regime - Georgina Pressdee, Temple Garden Chambers

19/12/25. On 10 September 2025, Mr Justice Dexter Dias handed down his judgment in Reeves v Frain and McKinnon [2025] EWHC 2311 (KB), concerning the regulation of damage-based agreements (DBAs).

The Issues

There were two issues in the appeal:

  1. Whether, under Section 58AA of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 (the Act) and the Damages-Based Agreements Regulations 2013 (SI 2013/609) (the Regulations), payment is only permitted out of sums recovered from another party.
  2. Whether Counsel’s fees can be charged as expenses.

Background

The underlying Claim was a probate dispute as to which of two wills was valid, with the later will favouring the Respondent (R) heavily at the expense of the two Applicants (As). The trial Judge upheld the validity of the earlier will and made an order granting probate, with R to pay 70% of As costs on an indemnity basis. However, at the costs hearing the DBAs agreed between As and their respective solicitors were found to be unenforceable. Both purported to renumerate the legal representatives by granting them specified percentages of “any money and non-monetary award or settlement received”.

Ruling

Issue 1

Dias J considered how key terms were defined in the Act and Regulations and concluded that the latter...

Image ©iStockphoto.com/Bet_Noire

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The opinions expressed in the articles are the authors' own, not those of Law Brief Publishing Ltd, and are not necessarily commensurate with general legal or medico-legal expert consensus of opinion and/or literature. Any medical content is not exhaustive but at a level for the non-medical reader to understand. 

Professional advice should always be obtained before applying any information to particular circumstances.

Excerpts from judgments and statutes are Crown copyright. Any Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of OPSI and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland under the Open Government Licence.