The Medical Defence Union has backed Ministry of Justice plans to address conditional fee arrangements.
According to the MDU, the proposals, which form part of a consultation paper on the Jackson Review, will make the civil justice system fairer but will not impact a patient’s access to justice.
Jill Harding, head of claims at the MDU said: “We believe that the current system is unfair to the doctors and dentists we represent who are funding these spiralling legal costs through their subscriptions and to taxpayers who are funding the cases indemnified by NHS bodies.
“The MDU wholeheartedly supports the changes proposed which address the problem of excessive and disproportionate costs, without affecting the ability of patients to seek compensation when they have been negligently harmed.
She added: “We agree with the proposal that defendants will not recover costs from losing claimants in CFA-funded cases and in return claimants won’t need to take out insurance against these costs.
“Claimants themselves should be expected to fund their solicitors’ success fee from any damages awarded and would then have an interest in the costs incurred on their behalf.
“To ensure fairness to claimants, we agree that the success fee needs to be capped and that there should be a 10% increase in the general damages that claimants are awarded. We think this approach strikes the right balance and hope that the proposed changes will be introduced.”
Original Article: Post
Source: Claims Standards Council
