The government dropped proposals to modernise the law of damages last month.
The Ministry of Justice has decided not to proceed with the Civil Law Reform Bill published in December 2009. The bill had put forward several amendments to the law on damages, as recommended by the Law Commission in a series of reports in the 1990s.
One key change included extending the list of people eligible to claim for bereavement damages under the Fatal Accidents Act. However, when the bill was published, personal injury lawyers warned its proposals did not go far enough.
The bill also proposed amendments to the law on pre- and post-judgment interest, which have been dropped. The government has deferred making a decision on the bill’s provisions relating to distribution of estates, pending the outcome of a new private member’s bill on the topic.
The MoJ said: ‘Although there is some support for the damages proposals, there is no overriding consensus on several important issues and there are strong arguments that they will be more expensive to implement than [previously] indicated.’
Source: Law Society Gazette
