Most litigation lawyers are waiting with baited breath for Lord Justice Jackson’s Review on Civil Costs, which is due out on 14th January 2010. Not since Lord Woolf’s groundbreaking reforms in 1999 has such an important review on civil costs been carried out. It has taken Lord Justice Jackson one year to gather the necessary information and it is expected that his recommendations could result in fundamental changes to civil litigation procedure. The report will probably deal with key issues like increasing use of fixed costs, the recoverability of success fees and ATE premiums, embracing the use of IT, clarifying the rules of Part 36 offers and tightening procedures on disclosure and exchanging witness evidence. Lord Justice Jackson has already indicated that if parties cannot afford to litigate then the court system is not functioning satisfactorily. I completely agree and I am looking forward to seeing the impact of this review on civil procedure in 2010 and beyond…..