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18 August 2015 / Jon Lord
Categories: Features , Procedure & practice , Costs , Budgeting
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What a pain

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Jon Lord assesses the government’s latest attempt to address costs in clinical negligence claims

Costs in clinical negligence claims continue to be as much of a drain on the minds of politicians as they are on the NHS budget. The recent proposal to fix costs in claims valued up to £100,000 is the latest example in a long line of attempts to close the gaping hole in the bottom of the public purse. Is it merely another sticking plaster or a lasting cure to the public expenditure problem?

Legal reform

Costs have been a major driver in legal reform for at least the last 20 years. The Woolf reforms, instigated by the Lord Mackay, Lord Chancellor in 1994, and the shift from legal aid to conditional fee agreements were driven by the need to reduce litigation costs and the government’s budget. Legal aid remained for some clinical negligence claims but has gradually been eroded.

Those reforms backfired in the clinical negligence arena, where

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