Solicitors Fees Blocking Environmental Justice

Tue, 31 Aug 2010

A United Nations tribunal has criticised the UK government for making it prohibitively expensive for campaigners to mount legal battles against environmentally harmful developments. In its draft findings, the tribunal cited the Aarhus convention which requires governments to ensure that financial barriers to not suppress the right of campaigners to battle against cases of environmental damage.

According to James Thornton, Chief Executive of Client Earth, the judgement is hugely significant, and could pave the way for an increase in the number of environmental cases facing developers in the UK.

The UK has some of the world’s most expensive courts in which to fight an environmental legal battle. Indeed, the Environmental Law Foundation has said that almost one third of its clients claim to have been denied a successful conclusion to their case by legal fees .

A single day hearing can cost as much as £100,000, while the no win no fee principle adopted by many British law firms means the price of losing such a case could ruin many campaigners.

Consequently, the UN tribunal has called for the government to intervene, to ensure the considerable legal costs charged by lawyers and solicitors do not prevent access to justice.
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