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Oliphant: Flawed Jackson proposals are 'on a slippery slope'16 Feb 2011by Hugh Bryant Professor Ken Oliphant, Chair of Tort Law at Bristol University, has chaired a working group of 11 influential legal academics to look at the Jackson reform proposals, according to the Legal Futures website. Their report, On a slippery slope - a response to the Jackson Report, is highly critical of the Jackson Report, which they describe as “a misleading and partial account of the problem… [which] systematically prefers the evidence of the defence lobby” over that favouring injury victims. They reject Jackson's assertion that the high cost of Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA) cases is central to the high cost of civil litigation in general and they argue that his proposals are inconsistent with the fundamental principles of civil justice of full compensation for wrongful injury because they propose "raiding" damages. They add that there is no evidence base for his proposals and that they would favour the interests of defendants above those of claimants. They advocate for, as we have done, mandatory before the event legal expenses cover in car insurance as a viable alternative to effectively capping legal fees and reducing the feasibility of pursuing complex cases. They recommend that the lawyer's success fee should remain recoverable from defendants and that the government should appoint a commission of inquiry to gather and assess evidence about the costs of civil litigation. They anticipated that insurers, including car insurance companies, would provide “unimpeded access” to anonymised case files. It's hard to dispute any of these assertions but the government is not likely to apply the brakes and think again while they believe that the Jackson blueprint will radically reduce civil litigation costs; so saving them a lot of money in relation to NHS litigation. |
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