The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in MGN Limited v The United Kingdom that the UK's " success fee" regime has violated freedom of expression rights. They found that the Daily Mirror's rights under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights were impinged by being required to pay not only model Naomi Campbell's legal fees but in addition her legal team's success fees of 95-100%, subsequent to losing a case which reached the House of Lords. The House of Lords had held that the publication of photographs of Ms Campbell outside a rehabilitation clinic disproportionately interfered with her right to privacy.
The Court accepted that the original objective of conditional fee agreements - under which success fees can be agreed - was to increase access to justice. This was a legitimate aim. The Court also noted the UK's broad margin of appreciation in implementing economic and social policies. Nevertheless, they found that the system was disproportionate and frequently failed to achieve its "espoused aim of ensuring access to justice for the broader range of persons". In drawing this conclusion the Court paid especial regard to extensive criticism of the costs regime by the recent UK Jackson Report on civil litigation costs and legislative proposals to cap success fees at 10%.