Any increase in the small- claims limit for personal injury cases from £1,000 would deny access to justice to thousands of injured parties, many of whom are not only injured but without an income as a result. Such losses, even for short periods, are enough to place huge financial pressures on genuine claimants.

The majority of personal injury claims fall between the current small-claims limit and the mooted figure of £2,500. My colleagues and I speak to hundreds of potential claimants each year, a number of whom we cannot help as their claims fall under the current limit. I regularly give advice, without charge, to such claimants to explain what they need to do to bring a claim through the small-claims court, and nearly without exception such claimants advise me that they find the prospect of bringing a claim without representation against an opponent, backed by an insurer and represented by solicitor/counsel, unachievable.


There is no 'compensation culture', and the level of general damages for the majority of claims does not increase at a rate that could justify any increase in the small-claims limit. If there is a perception of a compensation culture, then it is only fuelled by the government considering an increase in the limit when it should be making it clear that it is standing up to the pressures it faces from the insurance lobby and/or media coverage. Surely it is the injured individual whose interests outweigh those of insurance companies, which will not only benefit from considerably fewer claims below any increased small-claims limit but also from much lower payouts for any injured party brave and sophisticated enough to bring a claim alone and without representation.


The personal injury field has been the subject of too much change and too little consideration in the hurried and flawed legislation that has been the subject of disproportionate levels of litigation. So rather than continual, unnecessary anti-claimant reform, the government should become alive to the fact that injured people need qualified lawyers to represent them. Cutting the lawyers out will inevitably lead to injustice on a large scale.


Peter Tassart, Nash & Co, Plymouth