YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS UNDER ATTACK

LEGAL RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2016 :: RMTnews 25 The same Tory ministers who are making workers pay to bring a case to the Employment Tribunal and to neuter trade unions through the Trade Union Bill, are trying to impose a cost on the injured for legal representation in road traffic accident cases. This means the potential end of the person at fault paying what a case is really worth and the injured either having to take on insurance companies alone in their own time or seeing compensation that is meant to be for lost wages or broken limbs being spent on lawyers. In November’s Autumn Statement, the chancellor announced that he wants the small claims limit to rise from £1,000 to £5,000 in road traffic cases and the government is even consulting on extending this increase to all cases with a value below £5,000 - including claims against employers. This means that for any injury caused by a road traffic accident, if the level of compensation awarded is less than £5,000 the injured person would not be able to recover the money spent on a solicitor to represent them. While some people may be fortunate enough to have the skills to fight an insurance company, for many - arguably the vast majority - the idea of representing yourself whilst recovering from injuries without the support of a solicitor would be a nightmarish prospect. And who, without expert advice, will know what their case is really worth, what the long term medical impact of an injury is going to be, or how much they have really lost in wages? Injured people will increasingly accept settlements the insurers deem ‘appropriate’ and there will also be those who won’t go ahead with seeking compensation at all – you only need to see the 70 per cent drop in Employment Tribunal claims since fees were introduced to see how that would work out. The government, along with its mates in the insurance industry, says that there is a ‘fraud and claims culture in the motor industry’. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) claims that they ‘detected’ 67,000 instances of ‘fraud’ in 2013 alone. But there has never been any independent verification of the insurers’ figures and, by the ABI’s own admission, they include cases which ‘might have had an innocent explanation’ or where claims handlers have a ‘suspicion’ of fraud and an applicant accepts a substantially reduced offer, withdraws a claim without ‘credible explanation’ or allows communication with the insurer to lapse. When pressed by a cross- party group of MPs, the ABI admitted that there had only been 84 convictions in the period January 2012 to September 2014 by the police unit set up specifically to tackle the problem. If fraud is such a widespread problem, why are conviction rates so low? Motor insurance is compulsory and the £15 billion a year market is looking pretty healthy by anyone’s standards. Direct Line and Admiral paid out £1.65 billion in dividends to their shareholders in the last three years (that’s equivalent to £221 per policyholder). The CEO of Direct Line had an 82 per cent increase in his rewards package last year which probably reflects the fact that his company’s shares rose 32 per cent between when the Conservatives were elected in May to December 2015 (out- performing the rest of the UK stock market by seven per cent over the same period). The chancellor claims that the proposed rise in the small claims limit will save the insurance industry £1 billion. However it is unclear how this has been calculated or how this saving would be passed on to the motorist. Ministers have admitted that they do not intend to intervene in the market to require savings to be passed on and, while some car insurers have ‘guaranteed’ that they will pass all savings on to the policy holder, many haven’t. While this government continues its attacks on ordinary people, RMT members should remember that your union’s legal scheme will continue to work hard to protect you from the worst effects of Tory policy. If you or a family member are injured in a road traffic accident don’t go it alone - contact Thompsons and get support from expert solicitors who represent union members in personal injury cases every day of the week. Thompsons is working to fight these changes before they are sneaked through as law. Help us fight them too - read the latest on our car insurance campaign at www.thompsons.law.co.uk/ cutpremiumsnow or by searching Facebook for ‘Small Claims, Big Impact’. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS UNDER ATTACK Gerard Stilliard of Thompsons solicitors outlines government plans to take away your rights to legal access following road accidents