Thursday, July 24, 2008

The MoJ are a bag of sh!te

Forgive the slightly crude title but the MoJ really are a complete waste of space.

We personal injury practitioners and indeed our rivals in the defendant world have been waiting patiently for news of consultation process for personal injury reform. Reform which has been subject to much debate and both sides of the divide agree - is very much needed.

Our erstwhile guardians at the MoJ have been sitting on the consultation paperwork for over a year and continually issued one statement after another explaining that delays were to be expected given the weight of the issues to hand. We were promised something constructive and hopefully practical before too long and of course as you do, we waited patiently for their feedback.

Well now its arrived and jeeez what a complete - I'll say it again - bag of Sh!te.

RTA claims are well catered for within the "response" but with:

- Referral fees left wide open,
- Rehabilitation buried,
- Uncertainty over "After the Event" insurance and the right to recover premiums
- No measures to clamp down on Insurers "TP capture" methods
- No firm implementation details
- No guidance on the key CFA issues
- No implementation of the "Liability" rule where a Fast Track admission is binding
- No leadership
- No independence of thought
- I could go on

...this really is a poor show.

As usual its the claimants who will suffer from the lack of foresight from the political plodders at the MoJ.

A golden opportunity to sort the system out before we steam headlong into the brave new world of Alternative Business Structures and "Netto Law" has sadly been missed.

What a bunch of muppets