Injured people will take the biggest hit to their rights in recent memory under the terms of the Civil Liability Bill, a leading lawyer said today (20 March).
“Any concept of fairness or compassion or help for genuinely injured people has been sacrificed in what the Government is now openly calling a ‘bill to cut car insurance premiums’,” said Brett Dixon, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL).
“People with catastrophic injury claims will almost certainly return to a situation where their compensation will not meet their needs, under changes to the way their claims are to be calculated.
“People with genuine and painful whiplash injuries will have their compensation restricted – just because they have had the temerity to have a ‘whiplash’ claim,” he went on.
“Meanwhile, the Government continues to pay lip service to the concept of 100 per cent compensation.
“All this is for a promise of reduced car insurance premiums, which we know will never stick in the long term. There has been a whole raft of reforms to personal injury over recent years, all with promises from the insurance industry that premiums will fall as a result. Well, guess what? Premiums have not fallen, and they will not fall this time either.
“Insurers have been happy to take compulsory car insurance premiums for years,” he went on. “Under these measures, they will now be excused from paying full compensation to people who have been injured through no fault of their own.
“The fact that the Government has been seduced by these empty promises shows a gullibility which is beyond belief.”