Ministers drop plans that would hinder injury victims

The government has dropped plans which would have made it more difficult for people pursue personal injury claims with a compensation value below £5000.

At the moment, people can usually get legal representation in cases worth more than £1000 because their solicitor is able to recover legal costs from the insurers of the person who caused the injury. That system came under threat because of proposed changes to the small claims court. The small claims court can only hear cases worth under £1000 and neither side can claim costs from the other, even if they win their case. This means most people represent themselves as they would be unable to afford legal representation. As the figures involved are quite small, that isn’t usually too much of a problem.

However, the government then considered raising the limit for cases in the small claims court to £5000, again with both sides paying their own costs. This would have meant ordinary members of the public having to represent themselves in much more valuable cases and would have effectively left them at the mercy of wealthy insurance companies with their unlimited resources.

Thankfully, the government has decided against changing the system so the limit in the small claims court remains at £1000, meaning victims will be able to get legal representation on more serious cases.

This is particularly important as a recent survey carried out by the Law Society found that four out of five injury victims believe that without the backing of a solicitor they wouldn’t be able to get insurers to pay the correct amount of damages.

A separate MORI poll found that two thirds of people who suffer injury through someone else’s negligence would not pursue compensation through the small claims court without the help of a solicitor.

We are happy to advise accident victims who have been injured through no fault of their own and as a result of someone else’s negligence. Please contact Faizal Essat for details.