MASS weighs in ahead of Lord Young Health & Safety report

The Motor Accident Solicitors Society (MASS) has urged Lord Young to put 'the best interests of consumers' at the centre of his impending report on health and safety law.

MASS chairman, John Spencer, said: “When it comes to providing legal services to the victim who has sustained a personal injury, MASS believes there should be equality amongst all parties engaged in this practice.

"For example, we feel there should be a single oversight, regulatory and enforcement framework in place regarding advertising and referral fees, thereby preventing unfair competition and ensuring access to justice for the consumer."

MASS urged caution when considering curbing legal costs "to ensure that this is not to the detriment of the accident victim and their entitlement to access independent legal advice."

It added that banning the recoverability of success fees and expecting accident victims to pay a percentage of their compensation could result in "significant unintentional consequences."

Spencer continued: "Failure to increase damages by a significant level yet expecting a percentage [of damages] to be deducted would result in the accident victim taking a significant ‘cut’ in the compensation they are fully entitled to.

"This cannot be in the best interests of the accident victim or society. Even if there was an increase in damages levels of 10% (as recommended by Lord Justice Jackson), this would be instantly negated by the need to pay for any ‘after the event’ policy premiums and success fee."

He added: "Consequently, if this policy came into force, coupled with there being no increase in damage levels, even to cover inflation over the past 10 years, consumers would not only be a victim of the accident itself, but also the victim of a government policy change that would in real terms reduce the level of compensation they are fully entitled to.

"Evidence has already been provided to the Civil Justice Council on how accident victims of injuries of maximum severity in particular will lose out on very significant sums of compensation monies in cases of this sort, sometimes amounting to over £100,000."