On not thinking things through properly

[RogerS]

I'd always wondered how the UK came to become a 'compensation culture'..almost overnight, it seemed.

According to an article in the paper (FT IIRC), the Govt (unclear whether Labour or Tory so thread safely 'apolitical' :wink: ) decided to save money by withdrawing legal aid support for personal injury claims.

I wonder just which bright spark didn't think that through properly? At least, with the Govt funding these claims for personal injury, one would like to think that there was some sort of mechanism that filtered out the most obviously weak or 'trying it on' claims.

However, by withdrawing the legal aid support, the vacuum thus created has been filled by those 'No Win - No Fee' companies and thus the Compensation Culture was born, the NHS now has to spend millions (billions?) in fighting cases, ditto local Govt.

 

[Terry Smart]

I'm wondering if perhaps the reverse is more likely to be the case...

If a someone went to a solicitor to make a claim and were able to claim Legal Aid it would be in the solicitor's interest to pursue the claim regardless of the likelihood of winning as they would be paid out either way...

Whereas the no-win, no-fee merchants will only take on a case if they felt they had a very good chance of winning because they wouldn't want to waste their time if they weren't going to get paid!
This in itself becomes a self-governing system and some would say that it could deter people with a legitimate but difficult-to-prove case from being able to making a claim.

As for becoming a compensation culture... it started when people started to think it was easier - and more profitable- to blame others for their mistakes rather than themselves.

 

[RogerS]

A fair point, Terry. But looking at it another way, before the NoWin-NoFee merchants had the trigger to set themselves up, it was up to the individual to get off their backside, go find a solicitor willing to do the work etc etc. That took effort and in itself would have been a deterrent to some. Also, the concept of blaming someone else just didn't really enter into their consciousness IMHO.

Then the NWNF brigade set themselves up and started advertising like mad. Suddenly it's there in everyones' face. I would argue that it was this that has made people sit up and start thinking about blaming someone else for their mistakes and getting some money out of it as well.

 

[Taffy Turner]

The trigger point for all of this was when the restriction that prevented legal firms / solicitors etc from advertising their services.

They used to be barred from doing so, but when that was changed, all hell broke loose, and we ended up with the chaos that we have now.

A disgruntled Taffy.

 

[Jake]

It was actually the removal of the bar that prevented solicitors from paying for referrals that has caused most problems. Most of the advertising is from these claims handlers who sell the leads onto the solicitors firms.

 

[RogerS]

Very interesting, Jake. I'd not come across this one. Wonder which bright spark thought that one up?