Personal injury solicitor Patrick Allen has invited the Lord Chancellor, Liz Truss to meet clients who have brought the kind of claims that will be stifled under proposed government reforms.
Allen, co-founder of Hodge, Jones & Allen, wrote to Truss expressing alarm in particular at proposals to raise the small claims limit from £1,000 to £5,000. In 1991, he played a key role in persuading the then Lord Chancellor not to make a similar move, and says the arguments “still hold good”.
“If the law itself remains sound, and you are making no proposal to change it, then there is no rational argument to make it harder for people to exercise their rights under it,” he says in the letter.
“The sums may seem small but to individuals they can be very significant.”
He points out that low value cases may be complex, and that insurers “are not the victims”. He writes: “I invite you to visit our offices in Euston to discuss these issues with those of us on the front line and meet first-hand clients who are bringing claims of the type under review, to understand their stories and what their cases mean to them.”
The Ministry of Justice has not yet responded.
