Changes to funding regime will make it harder for victims to fund personal injury claims

In April 2012, the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPOA) became law, although a number of its provisions came into effect in April 2013. This Act makes it much harder for workers to fund court actions for personal injury resulting from work accidents, illness or disease. The TUC has estimated that as many as 25% of injury claims will no longer be brought as a result of these changes.

The Act replaces a system of funding that was largely based on no-win-no-fee arrangements, under which the legal representatives of successful claimants were able to fund the overall costs and risks of no-win-no-fee litigation by charging a “success fee” payable by the losing employer. This system was introduced after the government withdrew legal aid for personal injury.

Under the LASPOA, the losing employer can no longer be required to pay a “success fee”. Instead, workers must face deductions from their own compensation of as much as 25% to fund the litigation. As a consequence, the TUC anticipates that many people will no longer be able to obtain representation at all.

The problem will be particularly acute for “low value” or complex cases. As Hugh Robertson, TUC senior health and safety policy officer, points out: “Although a claim of £3,000 or £4,000 may be considered to be low value by the government, it is not low value to a cleaner who earns £6 an hour and represents four months’ wages.”

The government justified the changes by arguing that Britain is in the grip of a “compensation culture”. The reality is very different. A joint report by the TUC and the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), published in March 2014, The compensation myth — seven myths about the compensation culture, shows that the number of workplace claims have fallen more than 50% in the last decade from 183,342 in 2002-2003 to just 91,115 in 2012-2013.

TUC general secretary Frances O Grady said: “The government is forever trying to brainwash us into thinking that the UK has a rampant compensation culture. The true government motivation here is to weaken health and safety legislation and make it even harder for victims to pursue claims against their employers. Unfortunately the end result is likely to be a much higher rate of workplace accidents, injuries and illnesses in the future.”