Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL)

“If I hadn’t been able to make the claim I would still be on an NHS limb, I wouldn’t have been able to work, I wouldn’t have been able to move.” Rusty Brown suffered life-changing injuries in a devastating hit-and-run. He fought for his redress and was able to use that money to get his life back on track. Watch his story now #RebuildingShatteredLives

APIL president Kim Harrison tells readers in her latest blog that grieving families come up against a one-sided situation at inquests: "It is not fair that families cannot get the same publicly funded legal aid as the bodies and organisations who may hold the key to finding out how their loved ones came by their deaths." Read the blog here: https://lnkd.in/eKgCuC7k #LegalAid #Inquests

With the change in the discount rate having now taken place, it’s the perfect time to look at the implications of this and refresh yourself on the considerations you should have for settlement negotiations generally. APIL’s North East group are hosting our first meeting of the year on this topic, taking place virtually on 20.01.25 at 2:00pm. If you’ve not already signed up and would like to, please use the following link - https://lnkd.in/ey5iW_4z We look forward to seeing you there and if you have any questions about the APIL North East group or matters you would like to discus at future meetings, please get in touch.

Scottish MP Chris Law has launched a bid to reverse legislation that has made it harder for injured workers to seek justice. His proposed amendment to the Employment Rights Bill aims to repeal section 69 of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013. APIL opposed section 69 in the strongest terms at the time and has briefed Mr Law on the issues. “Until the 2013 Act, injured workers had the statutory right to claim compensation if their employers had breached health and safety regulations. But section 69 of the Act took this route to compensation away,” explained Gordon Dalyell, treasurer of APIL. “Injured workers must now rely almost exclusively on the common law instead, which means they have to demonstrate that negligence has taken place. This is especially challenging in the workplace, where employers always have the upper hand. They control the workplace, the equipment, the systems, and hold all the information,” he went on. Mr Law's amendment offers a chance to right this wrong. There is a real concern that many people who suffer harm in the workplace may not be getting as far as establishing a claim. Between 2018 and 2024, while the number of workers suffering serious injuries or work-related illnesses rose by 16%, compensation claims fell by 50%. 👉 Read the full press release here: https://lnkd.in/eXs4TegY     #WorkplaceSafety #InjuryCompensation #LegalReform #JusticeForWorkers #APIL #employersliability #ELclaims #personalinjury

The need for reform of the law on bereavement damages in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is “not only a legal issue, but also a social one,” Kim Harrison, APIL president, tells Insurance Post. In the comment piece published this week, she points to the more modern system working for grieving relatives in Scotland. "The law does not reflect real families in this modern society," Kim said. While civil justice reform could seem to be too far down the list of policymakers’ priorities, the model for a better system for statutory bereavement compensation is already there, and working, within the shores of the UK. Under the current system in England and Wales, bereaved fathers do not receive bereavement damages if they were not married to the child's mother at the time of birth. This is despite more than half of the UK's babies last year were born to parent's outside of marriage. Scotland's system, Kim argues, is much more representative and recognises the individual, unique relationships between different family members. Read the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/dK6Xzt_q

The new 0.5% personal injury discount rate will take effect from Saturday (11 January). The Lord Chancellor announced last month that the rate for England and Wales will increase from the -0.25% rate, which has been in effect since 2019. “Any increase in the discount rate makes it more likely that more injured people will be undercompensated,” said APIL treasurer Gordon Dalyell. According to the expert panel, which advised the Lord Chancellor when she undertook her review of the rate, it is anticipated that the chance that a victim of negligence will be undercompensated ranges between 24 and 45%, depending on the ‘core claimant type’. The panel based its advice on an assessment of several ‘core claimant types’ with a range of investment terms of 20, 40, or 60 years. All of the figures are based on assumptions about a severely injured person's behaviour. If claimants do not behave in the way assumed (e.g. they pursue a less risky investment strategy) the likelihood of undercompensation may be even higher. #PIDR #discountrate #personalinjury #seriousinjury #compensation #braininjury #spinalinjury #catastrophicinjury #injurylawyers #personalinjurylaw

Preventing needless patient deaths and injuries must be a key pillar of plans for the NHS. "Currently there is a fragmented approach to patient safety and it is clearly not working,” said APIL joint vice president Guy Forster. “There are many frameworks, schemes, and reporting mechanisms, but the system lacks cohesion. For positive change to take place there needs to be strong and comprehensible leadership, with an all-encompassing link between patients, regulators, healthcare providers, and policymakers.” APIL has called for wholesale application of the duty of candour. It would be a "solid, positive step towards tackling the patient safety crisis," said Guy. “Compliance with the duty has been sporadic, despite various programmes to get it into play. Without candour, vital lessons are not learned when failures in care happen and the same patterns of harm are repeated again and again". Read more in Claims Media below. https://lnkd.in/gzEs_HDu #NHS #NHS10yearplan #patientsafety #NHSreform #dutyofcandour #clinicalnegligence #clinicalnegligencelawyer