Claim Today Solicitors go on the attack over No Win No Fee changes

Top personal injury firm Claim Today Solicitors will launch a radical marketing campaign in January that will attack planned government changes to the legal system that they say will drastically reduce ordinary people’s access to justice.

CTS are one of the leading firms in the UK dealing with personal injury legal cases.  The firm’s normal advertising features the strap line “Don’t delay Claim today”.  In future this will be changed to direct anyone who was injured in an accident in the last three years, which was someone else’s fault, to make a claim before it is too late. “Don’t delay claim today - before the government takes your rights away. That’s the angle we’ll be using to raise public awareness of the assault on the fundamental rights of individuals to have access to the law,” said Rob Bhol CTS Managing Director.

The new marketing campaign that will be across TV, newspapers and the internet for the first quarter of the year is expected to cost CTS in excess of 1 million pounds sterling.
The Government will make changes to the current system of No Win No Fee funding of legal cases this year in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill set to become law in the spring.

The plans include abolishing success fees paid by defendants to successful claimant’s solicitors if they lose a case at trial.  The purpose of which is to encourage defendants to settle simple cases out of court. The new system will see claimants having to pay these fees out of their compensation.
The No Win No Fee system was introduced in 2000 when legal aid was abolished for personal injury claims to enable anyone regardless of their means access to justice.  CTS argues that this year’s changes will incentivise defendants to hold out to trail in every case putting extra financial strain on claimants which will deter all but the wealthiest of accident victims from seeking justice.

The Government has proposed changing NWNF arrangements in an attempt to stem what it calls a “compensation culture”, but with only around 25% of accident victims ever making a claim CTS says the government is attacking a problem that doesn’t exist.

Rob Bhol said “The only beneficiaries from changes to No win No Fee arrangements will be big insurance companies and rouge employers who neglect health and safety for their workers. In future many people with genuine claims for injuries caused by employers who owe them a duty of care will have no chance of seeking redress. There is though a small window of opportunity before the law is changed that’s why we are urging all accident victims to claim today.”