Five law firms and two insurers have set up a pressure group with the aim of preventing Lord Justice Jackson’s proposed reforms to the funding of personal injury and clinical negligence claims, which they claim will leave victims ‘at the mercy’ of large insurance companies.

The Consumer Justice Alliance (CJA) is to lobby against Jackson’s proposal to stop claimants from recovering success fees and after-the-event (ATE) insurance premiums from losing defendants. It also opposes scrapping referral fees in personal injury cases.

The group’s founding members are: Somerset personal injury firm Harris Fowler; London personal injury firm Wixted & Co; Essex medical negligence firm Gadsby Wicks; City personal injury firm ProLegal; Bristol medical negligence and personal injury firm Glynns Solicitors; and ATE insurers Elite Insurance and ARAG.

Elite chief executive officer Jason Smart said Jackson’s reforms would leave injured victims at the mercy of large insurers.