Industry expert view: Kim Harrison
Kim Harrison is the current president of The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), a campaign group which has been fighting for the rights of injured people for more than 30 years. Here Kim, a principal lawyer and head of operations for abuse law, human rights and public inquiries at Slater and Gordon Lawyers, sets out APIL’s priorities for the coming year.
Helping others who need me has always been a driving force behind my motivation to get up each day and do my job. It was what inspired me to become a lawyer. I am privileged to have found a job that has helped me to help others and made a difference to people’s lives.
But I am aware that not everyone sees personal injury lawyers this way, and APIL is acutely aware of this too. Personal injury law has been mired in poor public perceptions of what it means to make a claim for compensation and what that compensation is for. It matters because misleading narratives can lead to misguided legislation. APIL’s Rebuilding Shattered Lives campaign is dedicated to turning the situation around. Its aims are long-term and are to ensure that injured people are at the centre of policy-making. It is a movement for the whole sector to get behind. At this stage we are sharing the stories of real people who have been helped by the law. The response to our latest short film, Rusty's Story, has been overwhelmingly positive and I defy anyone to watch his story and not be both shocked and in awe.
At any given time, APIL is formulating evidence-based responses to government consultations and inquiries, considering interventions or even judicial review proceedings, in its efforts to protect the law. But I want to talk about APIL’s wholly proactive campaigns to improve the areas of the law where it already falls short. They cover a truly diverse range of areas about which our members are very passionate, and I mention a few of our main campaigns below.
Bereavement damages
It is very difficult to explain to a distraught and bereft relative that the relationship they had with their lost loved one is not included in the law for statutory bereavement damages. A fixed amount of compensation to recognise relatives’ grief and trauma is only available to those who have lost a spouse, civil partner, a live-in partner of more than two years, or a child under the age of 18. The last one in that short list comes with an exception. If a child dies because of negligence and his or her parents were not married or in a civil partnership at the time they were born, then only the mother is entitled to statutory bereavement damages. It should be obvious that it is possible for the loss of a sister to be just as profound as losing a spouse, and a father’s loss is no less just because he never married his son’s mother, or his son had passed his 18th birthday. Simply put - the law is out of touch and unfair. APIL has been lobbying parliamentarians consistently to get this issue on the parliamentary agenda. The government should introduce a modern law which recognises the close relationships between different family members and provides compensation on a case-by-case basis, as it already does in Scotland. APIL’s work will continue in earnest into 2025 on this important issue.
Asbestos-related lung cancer
More than 2,000 people a year die from lung cancer caused by past exposure to asbestos at work. A similar number die from mesothelioma. But those with asbestos-related lung cancer often fail to receive the full compensation they need because to do so they must track down all their former employers’ insurers. This can be an impossible task, particularly as many years can pass between exposure and diagnosis, and records can be lost or destroyed in the intervening years. Dying people simply do not have the time. Under the Compensation Act 2006, those with mesothelioma can claim full compensation from just one former employer. There is no reason why sufferers of asbestos-related lung cancer should not receive the same support from the law. We are lobbying for support for a UK-wide law to allow sufferers of asbestos-related lung cancer who cannot trace all their former employers to recover compensation from any one responsible employer. It should then be left to the insurance company, which has all the time and resources, to find the others, and recoup the costs. I have specialised in industrial disease cases myself and have sat by hospital beds and heard how important full and fair redress is to these people and their families. This reform would affect only a small number of people, but to those few it would mean everything.
Limitation in non-recent childhood sexual abuse
It is also high time the government abolished the limitation period for legal claims made by the survivors of non-recent childhood sexual abuse, as recommended by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), in its final report in October 2022. This subject is close to my heart, as I have represented abuse survivors in civil claims for nearly two decades. In 2025, it will be a whole decade since the IICSA launched and more than two years have passed since the recommendations were published. There is little else left to deliberate. The reasons why survivors take longer than other claimants to come forward are well established and were covered extensively during the inquiry. Despite the benefit of an eight-year, comprehensive inquiry making it very clear that the time bar should be lifted, the last government created further delay by holding a consultation. The current government should now act without further delay and lift the time bar for these cases in England and Wales. It was lifted in Scotland years ago. Victims and survivors also need the option of a proper redress scheme, for those who cannot face going through the courts. While no redress scheme is ever perfect, these people deserve to have a choice. We are still waiting for a meaningful and comprehensive consultation on what a scheme would look like.
I will continue to fight for the rights of victims of negligence and look forward to continuing this work, alongside my fantastic colleagues at APIL.
If you would like to read more about APIL’s critical work for victims of negligence and support any of our campaigns, visit apil.org.uk.
