ECHR rules on CFA’s in Naomi Campbell case

Published on 21 Jan 2011 under category: article

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that conditional fee agreements (CFA’s), which leaves the looser of a case with the liability of an uplift on the legal fees of their winning opponent, are in certain cases in breach of the defendant’s human right to freedom of expression.

CFA’s, which enable clients to engage in costly litigation which they could not otherwise necessarily afford, allow solicitors to take on clients on a ‘no-win, no-fee’ basis. The terms of the agreements effectively state that the client, should they lose at trial will only be liable for the costs of the winning party, meaning that their own legal fees excepting disbursements go unpaid. If the client wins at trial however the losing party will be liable not only for damages but also for an uplift, or ‘success fee’ on the client’s legal fees.

The parent company of the Daily Mirror, Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN), appealed to the ECHR on the grounds that the legal costs of £1 million awarded to supermodel Naomi Campbell were disproportionate. Campbell had appealed on a CFA to the House of Lords in 2005 for breach of privacy, and was awarded damages and £1 million in legal costs, part of which was a CFA uplift of £280,000.

The ECHR stated that the success fees (the uplift) were disproportionate and violated the right of MGN to freedom of expression, particularly where a claimant could afford litigation.