News and Events
Isn’t it ironic? There are some journalists who no doubt would seek to distance themselves from the tabloid media and not necessarily because they think themselves better than that but more likely because they have chosen not to operate in the tabloid market. Equally there are members of my own profession, myself included, who would prefer not to be associated with the content of programmes like Channel 4's Cutting Edge recent Scams, Claims And Compensation Games.
Lord Justice Jackson’s civil litigation cost’s review makes interesting reading. His foreword reads:
“In some areas of civil litigation costs are disproportionate and impede access to justice (my emphasis). I therefore propose a coherent package of interlocking reforms designed to control costs and promote access to justice (my emphasis again.)”
Jay Jones, 3 years old was attacked by another 3 year old with a car jack. Both were apparently inside the attacker’s parent’s car while the parents were loading things into the boot.
The insurance industries attack on injured victims shows no signs of letting up. I hear that within months, a number of insurers will be running advertising campaigns encouraging Claimants not to get a solicitor, but instead to deal direct with the responsible party’s insurers.
It has been compulsory to have at least third party insurance when using a vehicle on the road in the UK since the 1930s. The Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) are right to highlight the large number of drivers who ignore this legal obligation, costing the rest of us money in the process, as the insurance industry are left to compensate victims of uninsured / untraced drivers via the central fund that is MIB, but of course, the industry pass on that cost to the rest of us by way of higher premiums.
I blogged recently about my concerns that the purely financial interests of the insurance industry are given far too much weight by their friends in Government.
Here is a classic example of insurer’s hypocrisy. On the one hand they say (they would wouldn’t they) that legal costs are too high. On the other hand many of those same insurers, through their legal expenses insurance arms, sell claims to solicitors, charging quite incredible fees for the referral. I have heard stories of one very well known Legal Expenses Insurer charging around £800 for each referral. It is beyond me how any solicitor could afford to pay such a sum but there always seems to be someone who will. The problem, of course, is that the huge referral fee eats so much into the solicitor’s costs that there is little left to run the case, so the solicitor may have to cut corners and both the quality of the representation and the outcome for the Claimant suffer. Is it any coincidence that compensation claims against negligent solicitors are increasing? I think not.
If you were going to reform our system of compensation, where would you start? The Civil Justice Council [CJC] have, in their wisdom, decided to start at the end of the process, namely with costs. Rather than costs being determined by the amount of work the Claimant has to do to win their case, the CJC want to impose fixed costs on the vast majority of claims. Needless to say those fixed costs will be far far lower than the present levels, which are themselves hardly generous, yet with no reduction in the work the Claimant is required to do.
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