UK's Compensation Culture was a myth - till now: It's not quite the Oscars, but the UK Personal Injury Awards certainly kicked up a bit of a storm in London last month. The UK's first awards ceremony for personal injury lawyers was met with protests and placards.
Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out like that.
The trouble began when the host, renowned legal journalist Joshua Rozenberg, attempted to defend David Pugh, a partner in the Sheffield office of Halliwells. Pugh was in the running for the Defendant Lawyer of the Year award for his work in the Rothwell case. The controversial case eventually resulted in a House of Lords ruling that pleural plaques - scars on the linings of the lungs caused by exposure to asbestos - did not constitute an injury for which compensation could be paid.
Earlier, over a dozen MPs had called for the organisers to remove Pugh from the shortlist, calling his attack on worker compensation "immoral". Outside the venue on Regent Street about 20 members of the GMB union marched in protest, carrying a coffin marked with a skull and crossbones to symbolise the men and women who had died from inhaling asbestos.
There's no doubt this taps into a popular public perception where many people seem to feel that personal injury lawyers are, by their very nature, more interested in money than they are in justice. And there's no doubt that they have had some, often justifiably, bad press over recent years -- so to throw an awards ceremony and party in their honour would certainly seem to be poor judgement from a PR perspective.
We had a look at our friends across the ocean and found that even the lawsuit-happy americans don't even have such an award ceremony. Is this all a sign that the UK has sunk even lower?
Recently, Tesco refused to help the elderly and the disabled on two occasions blaming the compensation culture for their actions.
After an elderly lady collapsed in a Tesco's car park, the staff refused to offer any assistance due to the fear that, should something go wrong, the lady in question might sue them and their insurance didn't cover them offering assistance to customers outside of the store. Jean Speight, 76, was denied a blanket and even a drink of water by overzealous staff.
Just a few months before, a Tesco employee refused to assist a disabled motorist pump air into her tyres. Again, they cited health and safety reasons and said that their insurance did not cover them for performing such an action. In that case, however, Mold County Court upheld the complaint and imposed a £1,000 fine against Tesco under the Disability Discrimination Act.
So who are the problem? The public, or the lawyers?
Britain's compensation culture costs us £10 billion a year - an incredibly large chunk of that goes directly into the lawyers pockets, not the injured victims -- a quick search on your favourite search engine for "miners legal fees" or "nhs legal fees" will give you a glimpse into the industry being celebrated by these Personal Injury Awards - it's not a pretty sight.
But, victims do deserve compensation. And laywers do deserve to be paid for their time. The problem is not compensation system itself but the lack of regulation. Not enough is being done to dissuade people from making fraudulent or frivolous claims and not enough is being done to stop lawyers from over-charging and siphoning off victims compensation.
Once both those problems are solved then Tesco can probably start to offer water to their sick, elderly customers and lawyers can have award ceremonies without the public wanting to give them a smack in the mouth. †
NCD News: Personal Injury Lawyer Awards not popular for some reason - 23.11.08
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