The soon to be new president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), Matthew Stockwell (pictured) has issued a warning against the attack of the discount rate, insisting it would ‘constitute one of the gravest injustices of all’.
Mr. Stockwell, who is a barrister in Liverpool, will officially take over current president, Karl Tonks today at APIL‘s general meeting and has quickly set out his stall with his comments.
He said: “An attack on the discount rate will simply amount to robbing seriously injured people of the damages they so desperately need.”
In February it was announced by Justice Minister, Helen Grant, that there was evidence to suggest that the rate could in fact be risen despite claims from the personal injury sector that it was based on dated figures and that they should in fact be looking to lower it.
These assumptions from Grant were based on successful recipients of lump sum rewards misusing their damages, which was argued to display that claimants were in fact being overcompensated and therefore the defendants were being overcharged.
But APIL believe his is nonsense and that any plans by the government to alter the rate should be brought to a halt. Stockwell singled out the Ministry of Justice’s discount rate consultation for criticism saying: “I hope the government will consider this issue carefully and get it right because an attack on the discount rate would constitute one of the gravest injustices of all. It would not be a about reducing fraud, it would be about controlling the cost of litigation.”
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1. Insurance POST; http://www.postonline.co.uk/post/news/2296489/bereavement-damages-are-a-postcode-lottery-say-lawyers