Is a justice system even just if ordinary people cannot access it? Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon MP discusses the Tories' new Civil Liability Bill.
We are all meant to have equal access to our justice system. But when you can’t afford to defend your legal rights then they are not worth the paper they are written on.
Under the Conservative government our rights – often hard won by social justice campaigners – have been rolled back time and time again, creating a two-tier justice system.
Take the Tories’ Employment Tribunal Fees. These made it far harder for workers to take on bosses who had treated them unfairly.
When Employment Tribunal Fees were introduced the numbers of cases plummeted. People were priced out of pursuing justice. Unscrupulous bosses were the winners. Women facing sexist discrimination at work were some of the hardest hit.
The fees were eventually ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court and the Conservative government had to repay millions of pounds to working people. But only after determined campaigning by trade unions and others.
Or take the Conservatives’ cuts to legal aid. These make it harder for people to take on dodgy landlords. And harder for vulnerable people to challenge the flawed benefits decision that left them out of pocket and using a food bank.
Those injustices weren’t an unintended consequence, but the aim of those justice reforms.
Now the Tories have come up with another set of changes that will undermine people’s ability to access our justice system. But, perhaps not coincidentally, changes that will boost the profits of their friends who run the insurance industry.
The Civil Liability Bill, which comes to the Commons this week, will slash compensation for genuine whiplash claimants. The Tories claim it is about reducing fraud. But everyone injured this way will get less compensation. That surely can’t be right.
Such an approach is an assault on the rights of genuine victims. Pre-eminent legal experts have warned that penalising the innocent in this way goes against the principles of our justice system. Former Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf said that it “results in injustice and it is known to result in injustice. Indeed, no one can deny that it results in injustice.”
What does it mean in practice? For an injury that lasts between 10-12 months, compensation under a “one size fits all” tariff system would be slashed by 60% – down to £1,250 down from a current average of £3,100.
The Tories may not care, but such a fall in compensation is a very big deal for victims on low wages.
The Bill is also tied to a wider package of reforms which will also make it harder for workers to get compensation for workplace injuries.
The government is seeking to double the lower limit for recovering costs in Personal Injury cases from £1,000 to £2,000 (and from £1,000 to £5,000 in road traffic accident cases).
As a result, many more claims will be dealt with through what is known as the Small Claims Track. In such cases, even if a claim is successful, no legal costs are awarded.
So tens of thousands of working people will no longer have access to free legal help. Many will have to represent themselves, even where the insurers fighting against them still having lawyers of their own. Others will not be able to pursue their cases at all.
It’s not only Labour that opposes these measures.
The Justice Select Committee said “increasing the small claims limit for personal injury creates significant access to justice concerns”.
Labour is clear that this legislation in its current form cannot be supported. The government needs to drop all the measures that create yet more barriers to justice, or we will vote against it.
If they carry on as they are, then it will demonstrate yet again that the Tories are moving ever further away from creating “a country that works for everyone” and that only Labour will guarantee justice for the many, not just the few.
Richard Burgon is the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, the Shadow Lord Chancellor and the Labour MP for East Leeds.
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