Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

摘要

Government announces ban on referral fees The Government has announced that it is to ban the payment of referral fees in personal injury cases. It said the current arrangements "have led to high costs, encouraged a compensation culture and led to the growth of an industry which pursues claimants for profit."It added: "Insurance companies inevitably pass the costs they incur through increased compensation claims directly onto motorists and those with other insurance policies, unnecessarily forcing up the cost of living."Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly said: "The 'no-win, no-fee' system is pushing us into a compensation culture in which middle men make a tidy profit which the rest of us end up paying for through higher insurance premiums and higher prices. Honest motorists are seeing their premiums hiked up as insurance companies cover the increasing costs of more and more compensation claims. Many of the claims are spurious and only happen because the current system allows too many people to profit from minor accidents and incidents."