Patrick Allen believes small claims threshold will not be revisited
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is unlikely to revisit its decision not to raise the small claims threshold from £1,000 to £5,000 for personal injury cases, according to a prominent personal injury lawyer.
Announcing plans to tackle whiplash fraud last week, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said there were “good reasons” to raise the threshold but that the increase was being deferred until the wider impact of reforms was known so that the MoJ could ensure access to justice for genuine claimants.
Patrick Allen, senior partner at Hodge, Jones & Allen, who has been campaigning on this issue since the 1990s, says: “There must be a limit to how many times we need to engage in this debate. Lord Justice Jackson looked at the issue carefully and decided that the special limit for personal injury should remain.”
Stephen Gowland, President of CILEx, says raising the limit would exclude many genuine claimants.
