Accident claim winners who have a conditional fee arrangement with their legal representation will soon have to pay their injury solicitors’ success fees from their compensation claim awards thanks to new legal reforms set in place by the government.
The new reforms were put forward to reduce abuses of the no win no fee accident claim system where many have filed dubious personal injury claims. As claimants have absolutely nothing to lose, critics say that there are no repercussions for bringing a case and failing – something the new regulations wish to put an end to by changing the legal fee system.
Additional proposals made will see mediation be a precursor to filing a case in small claims courts. This is to spread out the financial load to both the winners and the losers of a claims compensation case in order to streamline the number of cases going through the civil justice system and to also cut down on legal costs.
One of the new system’s goals is to guarantee claimants receive the most thrifty option available while also lessening the pressure on defendants to agree with out of court settlements in the face of concerns regarding high legal costs.
Modifications include the requirement for claims less than £10,000 in value to go through a mediation process before being cleared for a court decision. The road traffic accident injury compensation sector is already subject to this rule, but the proposed changes wish to apply the regulation more widely in a cost-cutting measure.
The new move is but one of the Coalition government’s expanding aims to institute more mediation practices across the entire civil justice system. Moreover the new rules will even the playing field for injury claim defendants who run the risk of facing frivolous lawsuits.