It clearly means nothing to this Government.
We as citizens of the United Kingdom have had the right to easy access to justice for many many years but that is all going to change and become so much harder come April 2013.
We as citizens of the United Kingdom have had the right to easy access to justice for many many years but that is all going to change and become so much harder come April 2013.
Thanks to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 huge changes in civil litigation are to come into effect on 1 April 2013. However the Government is now proposing to go much further by introducing fixed fees in the majority of personal injury claims that will severely restrict people's ability to pursue claims for compensation. This will significantly hamper all but the wealthy's ability to obtain independent legal representation.
Nobody wants to be in an accident, but accidents can happen to anyone and one day it could be you. If you are involved in an accident due to the fault of another it is only just and fair that you are compensated. If it wasn't for that fault/negligence, you would not have had your accident and would therefore not have been injured.
Nobody wants to be in an accident, but accidents can happen to anyone and one day it could be you. If you are involved in an accident due to the fault of another it is only just and fair that you are compensated. If it wasn't for that fault/negligence, you would not have had your accident and would therefore not have been injured.
At the moment for example, in a claim against an employer, the claimant's solicitors will charge their work on an hourly basis but will negotiate their costs with the defendant's insurers/solicitors at the end of the claim and will usually receive a reasonable amount of costs for the work that the solicitor has undertaken. If an agreement cannot be reached it will go to a detailed assessment hearing for a Judge to decide.
The Government's new proposals are to limit the costs in these claims to between £950 and £2,500 depending on what the claim is worth up to a maximum of £25,000. This simply will not work. No solicitor in the land could carry out all the work needed in a claim for only £950. As the majority of claims are worth less than £5,000, £950 will be the fixed fee that they receive.
As a result of this, solicitors across England and Wales will be highly selective as to the cases that they take on. If a person comes in off the street with an injury but after discussing the claim with that person the solicitor believes that there are going to be any kind of complications in terms of liability or medically, the solicitor will not think that it is cost efficient to take on the case. This then will have a domino effect because if law firms are not receiving a steady stream of income from low value cases, they will not then take on those very big cases with very serious injuries, as the income from the small value cases allows them to take on the big risky cases.
It will therefore be the shop assistant, the factory worker, the pedestrian, the builder, the driver, the asbestos victim, the working people of this country who will lose out. They will not be able to have somebody on their side to fight for the compensation they deserve, not just for their injuries but for the financial losses they have also incurred such as loss of earnings or medical treatment.
The Government is shamelessly in the pockets of the insurance industry and clearly intends to drastically change the civil litigation system in this country so that hard working people are at the mercy of insurance companies. Would you trust your insurance company to offer you a reasonable and fair amount of compensation following an accident or the development of a life threatening illness or would you expect them to try and get away with paying as little as possible? Without an independent claimant solicitor on your side, a professional who understands the law and can assess what you are legally entitled to, do not expect to get what you deserve.
Nobody will shed a tear for the impact that these changes will have on solicitors, but the country needs to wake up and see what this Government is doing to our legal system.
The MoJ website states that "The Government is reforming civil litigation funding and costs to restore balance to the system." The proposals will almost certainly not create a balance to the system but will tip it so far in favour of the insurance industry it is actually unbelievable.
The insurance industry is one of the wealthiest and most powerful industries in the country. They have donated thousands of pounds to the Conservative Party and now this is how they are being repaid.
If as in all likelihood these proposals do go through, unless you are wealthy and can afford to pay privately for your claim, you can say bye bye to any chance of getting independent professional representation to help get you back on your feet.
The MoJ website states that "The Government is reforming civil litigation funding and costs to restore balance to the system." The proposals will almost certainly not create a balance to the system but will tip it so far in favour of the insurance industry it is actually unbelievable.
The insurance industry is one of the wealthiest and most powerful industries in the country. They have donated thousands of pounds to the Conservative Party and now this is how they are being repaid.
If as in all likelihood these proposals do go through, unless you are wealthy and can afford to pay privately for your claim, you can say bye bye to any chance of getting independent professional representation to help get you back on your feet.
