A campaign group has urged the government to “step back from the brink” or risk passing a bad law as parliament returns today for the second reading of the Civil Liability Bill.
Access to Justice (A2J) says the personal injury reform laws, which are driven by the government’s desire to crack down on whiplash claims, won’t tackle fraud and will deny the public the basic right to be represented by a lawyer.
Spokesperson for the group Andrew Twambley told Insurance Business that the raising of the small claims limit for RTA personal injury claims to £5,000 “arbitrarily reduces the amount payable to claimants.”
Twambley said the proposals will create confusion and unfairness, and that genuinely injured people will be the losers.
“At the moment if I break my collarbone in a road traffic accident, I will be able to have a lawyer and I’ll probably receive roughly in the region of £3,250. If this law goes through, the right for me to have a lawyer will be taken away from me, and I’ll probably get £400 for the same injury,” he said.
“The age-old right of being compensated for someone doing wrong to you is drastically reduced.”
The proposals will also see claimants have to go through an online Litigation in Person (LiP) portal for claims that come under limit, which A2J says will deter people from making genuine claims and potentially fuel claims management companies.
“Claims management companies who are not regulated and work out of back rooms will offer to assist vulnerable people who don’t know how to use the portal. They’ll take 30% off of them, minimum. And they’ll take fees up front so that if claims don’t go ahead, they will have already been paid,” Twambley said.
A2J said it supports an increase to the smalls claims limit that reflects inflation, suggesting a figure of £1,500. It also wants to see vulnerable road users (VRU), who don’t get whiplash injuries, removed from the scope of the reforms altogether.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) says the bill will mean a “fairer system for claimants, motorists, and compensators,” and is pushing for the provisions of the bill to be implemented in full.
The ABI said its latest research found that the majority of the public back the plans, with 87% of those polled describing the current legal costs as steep. The association’s director of general insurance policy said there is an “overwhelming recognition that legal costs are too high and need to be reduced.”
In a Twitter post, Twambley described the research as “totally worthless propaganda,” and said the questions were “so loaded it is embarrassing.”
