Two years ago Lord Justice Jackson produced a report for government outlining changes that could be made in the law to reform the costs involved in making a personal injury compensation claim . This report is now being looked into carefully in order to inform government decisions regarding cost cutting and freeing up court time. One of the key recommendations in the report is to stop solicitors who defended accident and injury victims from receiving “success fees” from the insurance company of the person found to be at fault. Success fees make it possible for solicitors to pursue other riskier cases on a no win no fee basis which might otherwise never be heard.

Solicitors and personal injury lawyers offer to take cases on a no-win-no-fee basis so that people who have been the victims of accidents or negligence are able to access the law without the expense of retaining counsel in the way one normally would. Currently it’s often required to take out insurance against losing so the legal costs aren’t bourn by the litigant if their case loses. If the case is won then the other side have to pay the legal fees as well as the compensation.

However, moves are afoot to remove the right to take the costs from the other side’s insurance, along with the success fees. This would mean that the victim in the case would have to pay the success fee out of the money that they were awarded as compensation. Further, the report would expose the accident victim to having to pay for the other side’s costs as well as their own should their case fail. As a consequence riskier or more complicated cases would not be heard at all as solicitors and layers wouldn’t want to take those chances on behalf of their clients.

Recent figures show that 600,000 people are injured each year in accidents which are not their fault and many of these cases need to be heard on a no win no fee basis. If the government goes ahead with the proposed changes to the law more than 450,000 victims each year will lose a quarter of the compensation they’re awarded while 150,000 wouldn’t be able to get access to justice at all. Those who are unfortunate enough to lose their cases if they are able to take their cases before the courts will have to pay the costs of the winning side.

Jackson’s report and allied recommendations have been criticised by lawyers, solicitors, judges, magistrates and action groups working for people who need access to legal representation. Their argument is that legal representation should be a right, not a privilege. As such it should be available to all victims of accidents and negligence, no matter if rich or poor.

There will be other consequences if victims aren’t able to access the law, Unscrupulous landlords, negligent or incompetent doctors and businesses with a laissez faire attitude to staff safety, environmental health and pollution would find themselves virtually immune from prosecution as nobody would be able to afford to bring them to book.

@DanCash is a blogger living in the south of England. If you’re looking for a no win no fee solicitor better do it soon before no win no fee claims are a thing of the past. This article was written by a guest author. Would you like to, submit a guest blog post?