Personal Injury Law Scotland

The Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament recently published its fifth report on the Courts Reform (Scotland) Bill. Lawford Kidd's submissions are referenced at paragraph 151:

"Lawford Kidd, personal injury solicitors, suggested that the Bill should provide for automatic sanction for counsel in: all cases above the value of £50,000; all industrial disease cases; all clinical negligence cases; and all cases involving fatalities. It went on to argue that sanction for counsel should not be left to the discretion of the court because of the uncertainty for claimants and defenders and the amount of court time that would be required to deal with motions for sanction for counsel."

The full report can be read here

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has voiced its concerns over UK Government 'attacks' on health and safety legislation, warning of the serious consequences for the UK workforce.

In a report, Toxic, Corrosive and Hazardous: The Government’s Record on Health and Safety, TUC reviews the UK's health and safety system over the past four years, showing that the Government has:

• cut state funding of the HSE by over 40 per cent;
• set up three reviews to look at the ‘burden’ of health and safety regulation and another to look at the function of the HSE, which have led to considerable disruption and reductions in protection for workers;
• drastically cut HSE and local authority inspections;
• blocked any new regulations and removed a number of existing protections;
• ditched important Codes of Practice;
• cut the level of support and guidance available to employers and health and safety representatives;
• changed what employers have to report, undermining the amount of knowledge that we have on levels of injury and illness;
• drastically cut the HSE’s work on occupational health issues;
• blocked new initiatives from Europe and attempted to reduce existing protection;
• made it much harder for workers to claim compensation after they are injured or made ill; and,
• undermined the independence of the HSE.

The report illustrates the 'significant' effects these issues are having and will have upon workers - with many more lives being unnecessarily put at risk.

Lawford Kidd's senior partner, David Sandison, has written to the Justice Committee of the Scottish Parliament expressing his concern that the Bill is unfair to those making a personal injury claim and denies them access to expert personal injury advice. The new Bill proposes that permission to instruct an Advocate will only be automatically granted when the value of the case exceeds £150,000. This is, as David says, "clearly unacceptable.". The full text of his letter is below.

Court Reform (Scotland) Bill 2014
I am writing as senior partner of Lawford Kidd, and accredited personal injury specialist recognised both by the Law Society of Scotland and the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers. I was also involved with the Civil Justice Committee of the Law Society in connection with their submission on the Bill.

I wanted to draw the Justice Committee’s attention to one specific aspect of the Bill and that relates to the sanction of counsel (either advocate or solicitor advocate), in the Sheriff Court under the new court structure.

Briefing Paper: Seminar at the Royal Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow on Thursday, 10th November 2011

“Access to justice is only possible if both parties have adequate funding.  If neither party has adequate funding, the litigation will not happen.  If only one party has adequate funding, the litigation will be a walk over” (Lord Jackson’s Review – page 41 – para2.4).

Lord Gill in the Report of the Scottish Civil Courts Review, chapter 14, undertakes an extensive review of funding options and states “we do however recommend that this issue should be addressed as a matter of urgency by the Working Group on Judicial Expenses that we recommend should be established.” (para127 page 104).

The proposals put forward by Lord Jackson are currently under review in Parliament in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Bill.  This Bill seeks to restrict conditional fee agreements (CFAs) in England.  The government is keen to proceed with Lord Jackson’s proposals and in particular, qualified one way cost shifting (QOCS).

As published in the Scots Law Times earlier this year, David Sandison discusses the likely impact of the Scottish Government’s response to the recommendations of the Scottish Civil Courts Review.