capped costs legal support

Summary

The requester asked for policies, statistics, and cost data regarding capped legal costs and settlement offers with non-disclosure agreements over six financial years. The Attorney General's Chambers refused to provide the information, citing that they do not hold the requested policy, the request lacked clarity, and fulfilling it would require excessive research and collation.

Key Facts

• The Attorney General's Chambers confirmed it does not have a capped costs policy.
• The authority requested clarification on the second part of the request via email on 01/10/2021 and 14/10/2021.
• The requester failed to provide the required clarification within the 28-day statutory period.
• The third part of the request was refused because it would require substantial collation and analysis of data.
• The request was ultimately marked as lapsed on 2021-10-11.

Data Disclosed

• 2004965
• 2021-09-23
• 2021-10-11
• 01/10/2021
• 14/10/2021
• 28 days
• 6 financial years

Exemptions Cited

• Section 11(3)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (Information not held)
• Section 14(1)(a)(i) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (Vexatious or unclear requests)
• Section 14(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (Failure to comply with clarification notice)
• Section 11(2)(c) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (Refusal due to lack of clarity)
• Section 8(3) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (Excessive cost of collation and analysis)

Original Request

Please release any and all information related to capped costs policy and strategy and procedures with a public sector employer and employment disputes to help identify at what point capped costs are determined and the scale of uncapped costs in relation to compliance with the human right to a fair hearing and then any and all information in each specific case referral or generic management statistics in each financial year in the most recent 6 financial years (without reference to department or case and in any stated order to further anonymise if required) the capped or uncapped costs and the estimated nuisance legal costs total used in relation to private settlement offers with non-disclosure agreements (gagging clauses).

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Attorney General's Chambers 2nd floor Belgravia House Circular Road, Douglas Isle of Man, IM1 1AE Telephone: (01624) 685452 E-mail: attgen@gov.im

Our ref: 2004965 29 October 2021

Dear ###

We write further to your request which was received on 23 September 2021 and which states:

"Please release any and all information related to capped costs policy and strategy and procedures with a public sector employer and employment disputes to help identify at what point capped costs are determined and the scale of uncapped costs in relation to compliance with the human right to a fair hearing and then any and all information in each specific case referral or generic management statistics in each financial year in the most recent 6 financial years (without reference to department or case and in any stated order to further anonymise if required) the capped or uncapped costs and the estimated nuisance legal costs total used in relation to private settlement offers with non-disclosure agreements (gagging clauses)."

You Asked

First Part:

Please release any and all information related to capped costs policy and strategy and procedures with a public sector employer and employment disputes to help identify at what point capped costs are determined and the scale of uncapped costs in relation to compliance with the human right to a fair hearing.

Second Part:

Any and all information in each specific case referral or generic management statistics in each financial year in the most recent 6 financial years (without reference to department or case and in any stated order to further anonymise if required) the capped or uncapped costs

Third Part:

And the estimated nuisance legal costs total used in relation to private settlement offers with non-disclosure agreements (gagging clauses).

If we have misinterpreted your request please confirm so that we may reconsider our response.

Our Response

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the public authority (AGC) does not hold or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find some of the information that you have requested. We have also emailed asking for clarification to the second part of your question but did not receive any further clarification and therefore our response below should be read accordingly. In order to deal with your request we have split our response into three parts. First Part

We refer to Section 11(3)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 (“the Act”) as a practical refusal reason to this part of your question applies as the AGCs does not hold, or cannot, after taking reasonable steps to do so, find the information you have requested, insofar as it relates to “public sector employer(s)” generally. However, in order to assist you further, I can confirm that the AGC itself does not have a capped costs policy.

Second Part

Unfortunately we do not understand precisely what information you are seeking in this part of your request. We emailed you on the 01/10/2021 and again on the 14/10/2021 requesting further clarification to this part of your question. In accordance with Section 14(1)(a)(i) of the Act the Attorney General’s Chambers may, by notice request from an applicant information that the Attorney General’s Chambers reasonably requires to identify the information requested. Furthermore, under Section 14(2) of the Act the applicant must comply with the notice within 28 days of the date of the notice. Unfortunately, under Section 11(2)(c) of the Act, as you did not comply with our request for further clarification under Section 14(2) of the Act, the AGC is only left with the option to refuse to supply the information where clarity was sought.

Third Part

We refer to you Section 8(3) of the Act. We feel that the third part of your request asks us to provide information which would necessitate us: researching and analysing information that we hold; undertaking substantial collation of information that we hold; and deriving information from the information that we hold. We are not obliged to do any of these things by virtue of Section 8(3) of the Freedom of Information Act 2015 and as such we are not able to respond to the third Part of your request.

Please quote the reference number 2004965 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will

be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.