From Mark Turner QC
The claim by Gordon Haines that the courts of England and Wales hand out
compensation regardless of blame is a myth
(15 September, p 52).
The common law of negligence applies to the vast majority of claims. Its application
to accidents has remained relatively unchanged for the past 65 years. What has
given this myth such vitality?
First, the media primarily report negligence cases that succeed, not those
that fail. For example, I represented a company on allegations that one of its
products had caused a serious blood disorder in a child. On the last day, the
gallery was packed with reporters. The child’s claim was rejected. The reporters
drifted away and the verdict received no publicity. Those newspapers that most
vehemently condemn the compensation culture help to sustain it by reporting only
those cases in which damages are paid out.
Secondly, legal aid for personal injury cases has been abolished in virtually
all cases in England and Wales. They are now funded by “no win, no fee”
agreements. Commercial breaks on TV are full of earnest-looking besuited
executives encouraging all and sundry to make claims.
Thirdly, there are many, many wholly deserving claimants who are thoroughly
entitled to compensation—but even the most well-founded claim can be made
to look speculative and unmeritorious by a well-spun article.
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Any court that referred to insurance as a factor relevant to its decision on
liability would be wrong, and appealably wrong. The requirement to establish
blame as a prerequisite to accident liability is alive and well.
Manchester
