A bolt from the blue was delivered in late January with publication of a fixed costs consultation for cases worth up to £25,000 by the Department of Health and Social Care.
The NHS will be the obvious beneficiary. However, buried in the small print of the 84-page document is the declaration that claims against private health care providers will also be captured. This is significant because claims against aesthetic clinics are rife and much dental work today is outside the NHS.
I was told last September that something was definitely in the pipeline. What has traumatised the claimant fraternity is that the government, confronted in earlier negotiations with rival contentions as to what those fixed costs should be, has plumped for the exact figures adduced by the defendant camp. The misplaced expectation was that the difference would be split.
The ‘consultation’ closes at 11.45pm on 24 April 2022. I am utterly convinced that the decision has already
