Lawford Kidd's Blog

The Scottish Government has published details of controversial plans to overhaul the civil court system in Scotland, following on from recommendations made in Lord Gill’s Scottish Civil Courts Review (SCCR).

The proposals will have a big impact on personal injury cases.

Scottish Civil Courts Review

A man has been awarded compensation of £8,750 after he injured his ankle in the ditch of a ha-ha in the grounds of Hopetoun House, near Edinburgh, reports the Scotsman.

The man, who was 61 at the time of the accident, was attending a guided bat walk in the grounds with his grandson. The injury occurred as the pair walked back to their car in the dark at the end of the bat walk.

The compensation award was originally set at £35,000, however, according to the Scotsman, the judge reduced the amount by 75% for “a high level of contributory negligence” on behalf of the grandfather.

According to figures obtained by the Scottish Conservatives under Freedom of Information legislation, councils in Scotland have paid out over £33 million to settle around 13,000 compensation claims over the past five years.

The data reveals a wide range of claims, including a man in Edinburgh who claimed £170,000 after a firework blew up in his hand; and a person in Glasgow who got their jacket caught on a bin hoist and was lifted into the air, which has so far cost £250 in legal fees.

According to the Scottish Conservatives, the actual cost is likely to be higher than the current figures indicate, as some councils failed to respond to the information request, and there are still some outstanding cases waiting to be resolved.

Not-for-profit campaign group, the Association of Personal Lawyers (APIL), has criticised proposed new rules on how insurance companies search their historical records if a potential claim for compensation is being made against them, saying that they are “wide of the mark”.

Responding to a consultation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) on new search procedures, APIL has pointed out that for injured or ill workers to successfully claim compensation, it must be established which insurers provided employers' liability cover at the time they were injured or exposed. However, this can sometimes be a problem, as APIL president Karl Tonks explained:

“Victims of asbestos-related disease can become ill many years after they are exposed at work, by which time the records can be harder to find. Sometimes they are never found and those people are left with nowhere to turn.”

The Court of Appeal in England this week amended a ruling that would have led to an increase in general damages in most civil cases from 1st April 2013.

The general background to the case is the balanced package of measures recommended in the final report of the Review of Civil Litigation Costs produced by Lord Justice Jackson in January 2010, and due to be implemented in large part in April 2013.

Many of the Review’s recommendations have been enacted by Parliament in the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.