THE developments noted here show that conditional fee agreements have become a significant, perhaps even the dominant, means of securing access to civil justice. The political popularity of such agreements is not hard to explain. Since 1949, civil legal aid has enabled the less well-off to litigate in the ordinary courts. But it is notorious that many people are excluded from justice, either because they are deterred by the size of the potential contribution to a legally-aided action or because their modest means disentitle them altogether from that system. Furthermore, legal aid is perceived by Treasury officials to be an excessive drain on the fisc.