A Change in Benefit Claims Administration Law on Personal Injury Claims?
Back in 2010, Lord Justice Jackson published
his reform relating to legal aid and the no win, free arrangement that is
becoming increasingly popular in the UK.
The ideas behind the proposed of benefit claims administrator reforms
were to reduce the amount of 'avoidable' claims that are contributing to the so
called compensation culture in the United Kingdom and to make it easier for
those who need to make claims to be able to afford to do so.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson
said, "the NHS paid A 200m to claimants' lawyers for compensation cases in
2010-11 - around three times more than it paid its own lawyers."
The proposed changes will include putting a cap on the amount of compensation that a solicitor can claim at 25%. It is also proposed that solicitors will have to take their fees from the winning side rather than the losing side as it currently stands. There is an argument that this change would mean that it would deter claimants from pursuing a case if they need to part with their hard-fought for compensation to pay for legal costs by claims administrator. But many argue instead that it will actually deter people from making a claim that don't really need to do so. Those with unavoidable compensation claims should be happy to part with some of their compensation in exchange for legal representation and some compensation in return.
However, in February of this year, the
government announced that these changes would be set to be postponed for six
months - pushed back to April 2013. The reason for the change in time frame is
to allow lawyers and legal businesses enough time to implement the necessary
processes for dealing with the changes to the law. Also for getting the claim
you need one benefit claims administration.
When these changes come into effect, it
will be much more difficult for solicitors to be able to offer no win no fee
(CFA) arrangements to clients that have complicated cases because if there is
an element of risk that the case won't succeed, they will need to burden the
legal costs. In addition, in cases that are unavoidable, for example where a
person has been very seriously injured, the claimant will actually be at a
disadvantage because they will receive less compensation than they would have
done before the reforms, despite a general damage increase of 10%.
In July 2012, the Government are also
going to report of whether the changes to the law will affect claims for asbestos's. Currently, it is thought that in cases relating to asbestos's, the
claimant will not have to pay legal fees from their compensation due to the severity
of the illness and the fact that blame can now be placed at the time when
someone was exposed to asbestos.
some details are clearly mentioned i generally liked it
ReplyDeleteReally impressive
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