I see the Law Lords think that impecunious claimants who cannot afford after-the-event insurance (to cover their liability to pay the defendant's costs if they lose) are involved in a form of 'blackmail' (see [2005] Gazette, 3 November, 20, 21 and 23). I take it that the same principle applies in personal injury claims as it appears to apply in defamation cases.

Have their Lordships forgotten legal aid? If a legally-aided claimant failed, the defendant could not get its costs. Are we now to understand that legal aid was a form of 'blackmail'?


It is reassuring to know in these uncertain times that some things never really change - namely, that the poor are not to have the same access to justice as the rich.


Harold Immanuel, Immanuel & Co, London