Lawyers Pay Debate Goes On

The government have recently rejected arguments on behalf of mesothelioma sufferers and overturned a Lords adjustment that would have excused them from the effects of the Legal Aid bill. Justice minister Jonathan Djanogly said he felt that the asbestos cases are no different from any other types of personal injury claim in justifying lawyers to undertake on a ‘no win no fee’ basis in an attempt to recover the defendant their success fee and any other legal expenses. He added that the burden was on clients to negotiate the level of success fee, and on the lawyers’ side to decide whether to charge one altogether. This opportunity that has aroused to use competition to drive down legal costs ignores the original strategy behind the compensation claim success fees, which was to compensate lawyers that lose these cases and leave them out of pocket. Much of the Legal Aid reforms are largely uncontroversial but there is a feeling of apprehension predominantly based around the exclusion of referral fees in arnpersonal injury claim, that is used for low-value road traffic accident claims and bigger personal injury compensation claims. Although the government has been told that it is impossible that this can be extended beyond next year, the debate over how much lawyers should get paid carries on. In a standard road traffic accident claim less than £10,000, lawyers receive a basic fixed fee of £1,200, although many insurers say much of this covers the referral fee paid to secure the case and with such fees banned it would fall to around £400. Lawyers are then counter-arguing that referral fees are just a form of marketing and with a considerable amount of firms refusing to pay them anyway, it will lead them to having to invest in other ways to attract work.