Personal injury lawyers must come together

The last few years have been tumultuous for the personal injury industry. We are now at the tail end of the barrage of reforms and battles which have left lawyers reeling and injured people the losers. However, even when faced with huge pressure from many in politics, the media and the insurance industry, PI firms and organisations such as the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers have not given up in our battle to protect the rights of the injured.

Being both director of a personal injury firm Spencers Solicitors as well as President of APIL, there are a number of pressing issues I believe need to be addressed by the industry, the government and wider society.

Mesothelioma bill

A continuing concern is the mesothelioma bill and its belittling of sufferers rights to full compensation. Just because their insurers can't be traced there is no reason those suffering from mesothelioma should be forced to give up a portion of their damages. The government made it clear that 75 per cent of damages are the best deal you can get from insurers, yet this should not be about getting a deal, but doing what's right.

Asbestos in schools

There is also a fierce fight around the lack of responsibility being taken for the widespread threat of asbestos in our schools, which effectively means nothing will be put in place to manage the situation. While the UK government say it is a devolved issue, the Welsh Government declare it to be responsibility of the HSE. This dichotomy must be resolved so that action can be taken.

Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act

The introduction of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act clearly needs to be addressed, as we believe it effectively gives a charter for rogue bosses who may be tempted to flout regulations. They are safe in the double comfort they are both unlikely to be prosecuted, and that it will now be easier for them to avoid their responsibilities to injured workers under civil law.

With regards to wider industry concerns, we have the simple fact that too often justice seems to take a back seat to commercial interests.

As a result of the Association of British Insurer's cynical campaign to undermine injured people's reputations - so that they are vilified if they make a claim for injuries caused through no fault of their own - they have come to be seen as pariahs in the eyes of the government, the press and business.

The loss of legally qualified lord chancellors is another factor I believe to be directly involved in a relentless de facto attack on injured people. It sums up the widespread indifference to access to justice we've seen over recent years.

As an industry, what can we do?

The APIL campaign which aims to help those who suffer psychiatric harm after the death or injury of their loved ones, launched in government earlier this year, will be continued with fervour.

APIL aim to fight the obstacles put in the way of people already suffering, and who need help and compensation to put their lives back on track. On the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, the law has not yet caught up with our medical knowledge of mental illness; the criteria for those considered for compensation is still limited in comparison to what is needed.

Linked to this is our campaign for the provision of rehabilitation in the aftermath of serious injury, as initial life-saving treatment cannot be seen as the end of the line in reaching full health. We must do a lot more to promote the use of rehabilitation, and to defend its use in the face of insurance industry attacks.

Further focus will also be placed on the Medical Innovation Bill, devised by Lord Saatchi, which seeks to protect doctors from litigation when they use innovative techniques on their patients. This bill cannot become a passport to bad law, as some patients in the care of the NHS are the most vulnerable, and it would be highly dangerous to remove the protection the law provides for them.

We will also be using our knowledge of claims against the NHS to help in our campaign to prevent needless injury. For example 80-95 per cent of pressure ulcers can be avoided if simple procedures are carried out by health carers, and so our campaign will seek to avoid this needless suffering by calling for a uniform and excellent system of care across the country.

Another topic already broached with the government, which we will be pursuing, is the system for payment of bereavement damages in England and Wales. While in Scotland this is done on a court assessment of damages, in England and Wales there is a fixed low tariff system, which 80 per cent of those surveyed felt to be unfair in comparison to the Scottish system.

 

John Spencer is the director of Spencers Solicitors and President of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL).