FATTER CATS OR ACCESS TO JUSTICE?

LEGAL RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2018 :: RMTnews 11 Unfortunately injuries happen at work. Whether it is because employers fail to put in place and enforce proper systems or because health and safety isn’t given the priority it should, Thompsons Solicitors ends up helping hundreds of RMT members every year who have been injured through no fault of their own. However, while at present the law means we can hold employers to account if they are to blame for the injuries and ensure that whoever caused the injury picks up the bill for legal fees, the government want to change this. In March, the government introduced the Civil Liability Bill into the House of Lords. The bill has now passed through the House of Lords and is due into the House of Commons from the 4th of September. The Civil Liability Bill is said by the government to be about tackling whiplash ‘fraud’ from road accidents. However, ‘a package of measures associated with the bill’ (for which read ‘hidden from view’!) will deny access to justice to hundreds of thousands of people injured at work or on the roads every year whose cases have nothing at all to do with whiplash. Currently, anyone who is injured in a workplace accident or on the road can claim back the cost of getting legal advice if their injuries are worth more than £1,000. Whether the claim falls into the ‘small claims limit’ of £1,000 or outside it is calculated on the value of the injured person’s compensation for pain and suffering. If the pain and suffering compensation is £999 or less, then regardless of what wage loss or expenses they may have had, the case is dealt with in the small claims court. The government want to use hidden powers to increase the small claims limit from £1,000 to £2,000 for all cases, including accidents at work (which have nothing to do with whiplash), and to £5,000 for all Road Traffic Accidents (not just whiplash). That means that in any case where the pain and suffering value is less than £2,000 or £5,000 the injured will either have to take on the insurers on their own or pay for a lawyer to help them from money that is meant to be compensation for their injuries and losses. £2,000 and £5,000 is a lot of money for most workers, especially for many working in the rail, maritime or transport industry, yet the government think it’s acceptable to leave people injured through no fault of their own to fight well- funded insurers on their own. If this goes ahead as the government plans, it is estimated that at least half a million people every year will be left on their own and trade union legal services will be undermined. By this hidden move, that isn’t even mentioned in the bill, the government is intending to turn over law that has stood for generations – they are doing away with a principle that the person who caused the injury should pick up the bill for the injured to get independent legal help and proper compensation. The bill, with lots of government talk about a ‘crisis’ with so-called ‘fraudulent’ claims and a ‘compensation culture’, is set against a backdrop of the government’s own statistics, which show a 7% fall in the number of personal injury claims in the first quarter of 2018. Data from the Association of British Insurers also shows that the net cost of insurance claims has fallen by 42% since 2010. The truth is that whiplash, “compensation culture” and “fraud” are a fig leaf to distract people from the government’s true intentions: to reduce access working people have to justice and to pass £billions to the fat cats in the insurance industry. With your help, we can undermine this insurer-backed bill. Help your union, help yourself and friends who might get injured in the future and put pressure on the government to think again by writing to your MP - there is a pre drafted letter at www.feedingfatcats.co.uk. Follow @FeedingFatCats on Twitter and support our campaign. FATTER CATS OR ACCESS TO JUSTICE? Without your help the government is going to penalise the injured warns Andrew Hutson of Thompsons Solicitors