Medical Negligence, Criminal Legal Aid - a government at war?

It has only taken a few weeks for the new Conservative Government to launch a full on war against the Legal Profession. 

We are all familiar with the shameful cut in fees for Criminal Legal Aid work which has seen action taken by firms across the country that are refusing to work at the new rates. I am not proposing to comment at length on that as it is not my area of work, save to say that these are some of the most dedicated lawyers around. They work long and often unsociable hours for a return that appears designed to grind them into the ground. Those lawyers deserve our credit and support.

In the meantime the expected attack on Clinical Negligence work has begun.

Earlier this week the Health Minister, Bun Gummer, announced an intention to cap fees paid to those who act for victims in cases where damages are less than £100k.

http://www.litigationfutures.com/news/health-minister-announces-plan-cap-medical-negligence-fees

Why has this statement come from a Health Minister? The Department responsible for standard of treatment is seeking to control the fees payable to those who represent victims of their negligence. Is the Minister of Justice too busy battling with everyone else?

The speech is alarming to say the least. He talks about ‘unscrupulous’ behaviour from lawyers who run up huge costs. This suggests that anyone who has the effrontery to fight for their client is somehow unscrupulous. How dare they! If the NHS made early admissions then the costs would be lower. If they force a victim to fight every inch of the way then they should not complain about having to pay if the case succeeds or settles at the last minute.

He says that the fees should represent a percentage of the compensation. So a victim who is dragged through contested litigation to trial and gets an award of say £50k will only recover a percentage of that amount in legal costs. The Trial itself would cost more than that. It is his government that has increased court fees which would eat up 5% of a £100k claim. Are we taling about all costs including these court fees and expert fees? This sounds like back of an envelope rhetoric but that has not stopped this government in the past.

Mr Gummer then relies on the familiar phrase – ‘hard working taxpayers’. In my experience most victims of clinical negligence are hard working tax payers. Those victims will end up seeing further deductions from their damages if they cannot recover their legal costs in full, from the negligent medical practitioners.

If he wishes to save money for the NHS the focus should be on reducing the number incidents that occur such as queues of ambulances backed up outside hospitals. Or there could be a new streamlined process that will secure justice more quickly and efficiently. But that requires positive contribution from all sides rather than throwing insults victims’ lawyers.

Finally the Ministry of Health promise consultation with ‘stakeholders’. Will that include those who represent victims and who he says are unscrupulous? This is disturbingly reminiscent of the discussions between the government and insurers of road Traffic claims from which Claimant lawyers were excluded.

http://thestevecornforthblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/apils-judicial-review-morning-after.html

There are systems in place to ensure that costs are not unreasonably incurred in complex cases. Even though the budgeting experiment seems doomed in Clinical Negligence cases, the costs are still subject to assessment by the court. I would fully support the comments of Deborah  Evans of APIL - 

'As a defendant, the NHS Litigation Authority has the right to ask the court for justification of what it has to pay when it loses a case. The fees reflect the fact that clinical negligence cases are complicated and require a great deal of skill and investment of time and resources just to establish whether there is a valid claim,'
 

http://www.solicitorsjournal.com/news/personal-injury/medical-negligence/23149/cap-nhs-litigation-claims-not-answer-better-care-argue

I suspect that this will ultimately lead to fixed fees. Provided those fees are reasonable they are probably inevitable in time and should hold ne fears for those who work efficiently.