Lawyer slams fees move over impact on hardest hit

Olwen Dudgeon Legal Correspondent

A leading personal injury lawyer from Yorkshire has criticised proposed changes to the way civil court cases are funded, saying the most needy victims of serious accidents could be left worse off.

Following the publication of Lord Justice Jackson’s report into civil litigation costs, Daniel Herman, a partner at Stewarts Law in Leeds, said proposals to make successful claimants pay their own legal fees from the compensation they receive would leave accident victims, who need the highest levels of long-term care and support as a result of their injuries, out of pocket.

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In his report last week, Lord Justice Jackson criticised the current practice in so-called “no win, no fee” personal injury cases where solicitors claim fees back from the defendant when they win a case as placing a “disproportionate” financial burden on the losing party.

Instead, he recommends making the claimant liable for solicitors’ success fees but raising typical compensation awards by 10 per cent in order to strike a better balance.

Mr Herman, a specialist in severe brain and spinal injury cases, said a 10 per cent increase in damages may not cover the necessarily high legal costs incurred during complex cases.

“A long-standing principle of personal injury law is that an injured person should be able to recover a sum which meets his or her reasonable needs both now and in the future,” he said.

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“In the most catastrophic personal injury cases, that means recovering from the responsible party a sum equivalent to the losses and expenses that he or she will incur in relation to earnings, care, accommodation, transport, aids and equipment, therapies, medical treatment etc.”

“The multi-million pound cases that one reads about in the press are not lottery wins – they are what the injured person will need to spend over the course of their life, a life which has been severely impaired through no fault of their own.

“Lord Justice Jackson’s suggestion that claimants should pay their lawyers a success fee out of their damages means, inevitably, that claimants would be under-compensated. The proposal to increase awards for pain and suffering by 10 per cent would make little difference.

“The biggest current awards for pain and suffering are in the region of 250,000. Under the proposed system, that would be increased to 275,000. However, the success fee payable to the lawyer would almost certainly be more than 25,000 and so the injured party would be a net loser.

“Whilst this proposed scheme may work for those with minor injuries, those with catastrophic life-changing injuries could be considerably worse off.”

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