The escalating cost of personal injury claims against the NHS ‘simply cannot continue’ and lawyers must advise the government on a remedy, the incoming president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) said last week.

Muiris Lyons (pictured), partner and head of clinical negligence at London and Leeds firm Stewarts Law, told delegates at the APIL annual residential conference that he will make claims against the NHS a key issue of his year as president.

Lyons said that APIL will put together proposals for reducing the cost of NHS claims and hand them to the next government. ‘The cost of claims against the NHS continues to increase and we must recognise that this simply cannot continue,’ he said. ‘We as lawyers owe a wider duty to society to ensure that the cost of claims remains both proportionate and reasonable.’

He added: ‘We can’t ignore that there are significant costs to the NHS. We know how the system works and can improve it without restricting access to justice for our clients.’

A 2009 NHS Litigation Authority report claimed solicitors billed £152m to obtain £807m in compensation in 2008/09.Lyons also addressed delegates on the new road traffic accident claims portal, due to go live tomorrow. He said that while it ‘does not attract universal support from our members’, it ‘must succeed’.

‘While the scheme provides for reduced costs, it also reduces the work that needs to be done, a point that is often overlooked,’ he said. ‘You may receive less per claim, but you will do less work per claim. If you can get it right, it should not affect the economic viability or profitability of the work.’

Lyons said that Lord Justice Jackson’s report on civil litigation costs will ‘set the agenda for the personal injury world over the next 18 months’, but parts of his report represent a ‘very real setback’ for clients.

‘I am particularly concerned about the impact on those who suffer the most severe of injuries,’ he said. ‘Our concern is that what Sir Rupert recommends is not a solution to the costs of litigation – it is a radical rebalancing of the civil justice system away from the interests of the injured person in favour of the compensator.’