Plans to raise limit pose significant access to justice concerns, the Bar warns
Barristers have joined MPs on the Justice Committee in criticising government proposals to raise the threshold for small claims.
The MPs’ report, Small claims limit for personal injury, warned last week of significant access to justice concerns if plans to raise the small claims limit from £1,000 to £2,000 for employers’ liability and public liability claims, and to £5,000 for road traffic accident-related personal injury, go ahead. The change would be made by secondary legislation.
A Bar Council spokesperson said: ‘Many who suffer such injuries are not in a position to afford legal help, often because an accident has resulted in a loss of income, yet they will be up against large and well-resourced insurance firms.
‘The Justice Select Committee rightly points out that the likely impact of raising the small claims track will be a substantial increase in the number of unrepresented litigants. This will place further strain on the resources of already stretched court services.’
It supported the Justice Committee’s recommendation that the limit be raised to £1,500 instead as ‘a more reasonable and proportionate measure’.
Bob Neill MP, chair of the Justice Committee, said the proposed increase raises concerns about the ‘financial and procedural barriers that claimants might face’. Although the Ministry of Justice is developing an electronic platform to help unrepresented claimants, Neill said ‘we remain to be convinced that this will be effective or sufficient’.
The report’s recommendations include that the government work with the Association of British Insurers to provide reliable data and monitor the extent to which premium reductions can be attributed to these reforms, reporting back after 12 months. While the committee felt that fraudulent and exaggerated claims must be prevented, ‘the common law right to compensation for negligence applies regardless of the value of the claim’ and said that the government should not increase the small claims limit for RTA (road traffic accident) PI claims to £5,000.
It recommends delaying the national roll-out of the electronic platform until at least April 2020, and that the senior judiciary’s examination of McKenzie friends conclude as soon as possible.
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