Personal Injury Bar Association lash out at the Ministry of Justice over personal injury reforms

This article was published on: 09/20/13

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The Personal Injury Bar Association (PIBA) has launched a scathing attack on the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) describing them as being ‘like a stubborn and stupid child’ as well as labelling them ‘incapable of listening to good sense’.

These harsh words were released in a recent PIBA newsletter where the Chairman addressed the MoJ’s stance on the changes to the personal injury industry and the problems regarding recoverability, or lack of, for counsel’s fees in the fixed recoverable costs regime.

PIBA Chairman, Charlie Cory Wright QC criticised the governments handling of the personal injury reforms and the pressures it has put on all involved within the industry saying: “Those working in injury litigation are not only under fire from the big guns of LASPO itself, but also (and rather more worrying because less observed, at least from outside the profession) from their camp-followers, in the form of changes to the CPR, and in particular to the Portals and the Fast Track.”

He went on to express his concern for the future of the success fee as he talked about the widespread realisation that solicitors were now leaning toward no success fee models, due to the reluctance to take money off their clients and the cap on fees they can take, and revealed that The Bar is already being asked to follow suit.

Describing the effects of this happening, Mr Wright said: “This represents a double-whammy; on top of the reduction in cases that are litigated, claimants’ counsel will, in general, no longer get success fees on those that are. There may be exceptions, with particular firms who may stick to the old model or on those occasions where risky cases may still get litigated, but the general movement will be away from success fees.”