County court shake-up plans dubbed a ‘missed opportunity’

The government has come under fire from all sides of the civil litigation spectrum over its plans to reform the county court system.

The Ministry of Justice last week confirmed plans to raise the limit of small claims through the county court system to £10,000 and divert up to 80,000 cases a year through a new telephone mediation process. The small claims ceiling may be increased to £15,000 if this is successful. Campaign groups for claimants say there is insufficient detail in the proposals and have warned against further radical reform of the claims process.

Insurance lawyers dismissed the report, based on last year’s consultation on the county court system, as a ‘missed opportunity’ for an overhaul of the process. The government conceded that further consultation is necessary across a range of policies, particularly on the proposed increased of the RTA Portal for claims up to £25,000 and plans to include employer and public liability claims.

The MoJ report accepted more time is needed to assess how well the two-year-old portal is working before placing extra demands on it.

Don Clarke, president of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers, said: ‘Key aspects, which are crucial to delivering a more just and effective process whilst at the same time reducing transactional cost, have been made subject to further consultation and the failure to provide timelines or any implementation dates runs the risk that momentum will be lost.’

Claimant lobby groups agreed the report, originally due out in October, raised as many questions as solutions, with the Access to Justice Group labeling it a ‘damp squib’. AJAG spokesman Andrew Dismore added: ‘If all that was going to happen was a restatement of policy that has already been announced, why on earth was the paper delayed for almost four months beyond its original scheduled publication date?

‘There is no detail whatsoever, and while a commitment to further consultation is always both welcome and necessary, there is no indication of when or how that will happen either.’

Other policy announcements included the level below which non-personal injury claims cannot be heard in the High Court being raised from £25,000 to £100,000. The value of property above which equity cases need to be referred up to the High Court will be raised from £30,000 to £350,000.

The consultation process received 319 responses, of which 44% were from members of the legal profession.

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