The following details have been supplied by the TUC:
Injured people face an 'ever tightening screw', the head of a top legal body has warned. David Bott, the new president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), told the organisation's annual conference this week that it is 'plain wrong' for injury victims to take a cut of up to 25 per cent of their compensation to meet some legal costs. Commenting on legal reforms introduced by justice secretary Ken Clarke, he told delegates: 'Claimants have not chosen to litigate. They did not arrive at the decision after a cost-benefit analysis. They were injured and rightly expect redress. All that they want, and all that the law can give them, is to get back to where they were before the injury.' He added the government reforms are 'literally adding insult to injury. APIL will work with as many claimant bodies as possible to try to get the voice of injured people, the voice of ordinary people, the voice of the voting public, heard.' When the reforms were announced earlier this month, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: 'This review has nothing to do with justice, it is simply lining the pockets of insurers at the expense of claimants seeking compensation for injuries caused by the negligence of others. This is yet another attempt to reduce the rights of those at work to secure justice when employers break the law.'
