Civil Liability Bill: Comment on latest concessions

Qamar Anwar, managing director of First4Lawyers, comments on the latest developments of the Civil Liability Bill and the concessions made by the government this week:

“We welcome the small steps the government has taken to improve legislation that Lord Woolf rightly described as “unjust”, but it is now down to the House of Commons to make the substantial changes it requires to ensure that innocent motorists and others injured due to the negligence of others do not suffer a second time when they bring a claim.

Given the recent report of the justice select committee, which condemned the planned rise in the small claims limit, the public has a right to expect MPs to protect them from reforms that will ultimately benefit insurers more than anyone.

“Research we recently conducted shows that people do not trust insurers to pass on the massive savings they will make, and believe that fair compensation levels are more important than a small drop in premiums anyway. They would also have no idea how to pursue their own claim if they are pushed into the small claims court. We call on MPs to ‘repair the right body’ and make compensation for injured people, rather than cars and insurer profits, the priority of the justice system.”

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