Member

Charges for litigation work can be far in excess of what a privately paying client would consider reasonable and proportionate to the losses incurred. For example, the Ministry of Justice received a claim for private prosecutor costs in a fraud case, where the costs totalled £90,000 despite the losses amounting to only £5,000 and there being fewer than 400 pages of statements and exhibits to consider. We also see instances where private prosecutions may be being used as a no-lose way of coercing parties involved in civil or commercial disputes—for example, the litigation of a theft offence in the context of a neighbour dispute, where the police had already thoroughly investigated and found no evidence of wrongdoing.