All hail R (Unison) v Lord Chancellor & the Justice Select Committee, says Patrick Allen
The House of Commons Justice Select Committee has slammed government proposals to raise the small claims limit for personal injury claims in its recent forthright report (Small claims limit for personal injury, 17 May 2018).
The government had announced its intention to raise the small claims limit for general damages from £1,000 to £5,000 for claims arising from a road accident and £2,000 for other claims including accidents at work. It has just introduced the Civil Liability Bill in the House of Lords which would reduce whiplash damages to a small fraction of the Judicial Standards Board (JSB) guideline figures.
Legal costs are not recoverable in the small claims track so accident victims would not be able to instruct lawyers to help with their case, obtain medical evidence, advance court fees and value and negotiate the claim.
The Justice Select Committee received compelling evidence of the obstacles that litigants in person would face and concluded that ‘this would represent an unacceptable barrier to access to justice’.
Not one
