The year ahead Email your opinions to editorial@barkerbrooks.co.uk


We talk to trailblazer Neil Hudgell COVER INTERVIEW ➔


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Deborah Evans, CEO, APIL "After a massive overhaul to personal injury landscape during 2013, we hope that in 2014 the sector is given


time to adjust and adapt. Lawyers need the reforms to ‘bed in’ so that they can work out how to do the best for their clients whilst keeping their businesses viable. The introduction of fixed fees in lower value cases, and proportionality rules and cost budgeting in


higher value cases, is starting to impact on access to justice in more complex cases. Already our members are recognising that some cases (which would have succeeded before) are not economically viable to run in the new regime. APIL will be carrying out research to see where the genuinely injured claimant is worst hit. We hope that the Government will be more reflective in 2014 and will take time to look at the impact of


the reforms and take any corrective action should problem areas be identified. Thankfully, the Government listened to reason on one point and proposals to increase the small claims


court limit for personal injury have stalled for the time being. But injured people are still not getting the justice they deserve, and 2014 heralds some fresh fights. The drive to cut costs has unpicked some of the progress made by campaigners like APIL to improve the


system for injured people, but we will work with change as best as we can, and continue to give victims of negligence a voice. We would hope that the Government is willing to properly explore the areas that really are in need


of reform, such as bereavement damages, which is currently a postcode lottery for grieving families. The system for bereavement damages is much fairer in Scotland than it is in England, as each case is considered on its own merits and the scope for who is eligible is much more flexible. As always APIL will be concentrating on trying to change the perceptions of Government decision-


makers and influencers, to campaign for changes which can make a positive difference to the lives of those injured through no fault of their own."


Professor Dominic Regan, special adviser to Lord Justice Jackson and co-editor of


Surviving Jackson. "My nap is that there will be a big judicial push towards ADR. Those frightened by Mitchell will look for an easier way to sort things out and the need to deal with cases at proportionate cost will lever mediation like never before."


Hilary Meredith, CEO at Hilary Meredith Solicitors Limited "2014 already feels like the new dawn on the legal landscape, leaving behind us the tsunami of 2013. The


panicked, the stricken, the wounded have all been triaged and a calm is settling, almost. Don’t be fooled though, the second wave is about to hit, not so catastrophic as the first, but there will


still be casualties – mainly comprised of those who have hung on with false hope and those in denial. The shakeup has been monumental and I am not entirely convinced the Government or the judiciary


entirely understood the consequences of their actions, many too busy or too lazy to understand a complex industry and swept away by the easy to digest, but factually incorrect messages sent out by the insurers. My own view, and I will probably not be popular in sharing it, is that there were too many PI practices.


Anyone can borrow money to buy cases from a claims management company but how many can litigate well for their clients? Do we even still remember when it was the norm to create a reputation and a following with recommendations from clients? Well before Jackson and the reforms we took the view that we would not pay CMCs for work and we


would re-claim our route to market. That was in the later quarter of 2010, fed up with the poor quality of work and the high write offs created by CMC work. Now we enter 2014 in great shape, nearly 70% of our work is generated on recommendation and reputation."


Claims Magazine/Issue 11/ 29


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