Treat more PI cases as small claims, urge judges

RESEARCH: caution over raising the general limit beyond 5,000

District judges would like to increase the number of personal injury (PI) cases coming within the scope of the small claims regime, government-commissioned research has found.

A report on how the expansion of the general small claims limit from 3,000 to 5,000 has worked said that most of the district judges interviewed supported raising the special 1,000 limit applied to PI cases.

Noting that this would be controversial, the report said it would be subject to the existing cost structure in small claims being modified.

A spokeswoman for the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers said it would strongly oppose such a move.

She said: 'We believe personal injury claims have no place in the small claims court, primarily because of the complexity of even the most apparently straightforward claims.'

More generally, the research - by Professor John Baldwin of Birmingham University - found that the effects of the increase to 5,000 'have been absorbed without serious disruption in county courts'.

There has been little change in the number of cases brought.

However, Prof Baldwin said it would be simplistic to assume that this meant the limit could be extended still further.

'It is unlikely that further rises to the small claims limit, no matter how substantial, would achieve more than a limited transfer of fast-track claims to the small-claims track,' the report said.

It added: 'Questions still need to be raised about whether the sacrifice in standards of judicial decision-making that the informal small claims procedure inevitably involves can be justified in claims involving sums in excess of 5,000.'

Neil Rose