In the house of lords this week the government have been out voted six different times about the ammendments over the legal aid, sentencing and punishment of offenders bill. They want to save about £350 million per year from the Ministry of justive budget.
The amnesty international have asked the House of Lords to stop or prevent the government plans, the amnesty international believe that the government plans will prevent the victims of their human rights abuses overseas suing multinational companies in the UK. They amnesty have written to each member of the House of Lords urging them to prevent these plans.
Kenneth Clarke the justice secretary has blamed the no win no fee claims system for this huge rise of claims saying it had fuelled the compensation culture out of control. More voted will take place next week about the reform of the no win no fee system.
The bill will require the success fee for the lawyers and also it will require the after the event insurance premium that will be paid out of the victims compenstation that they have been awarded warns the amnesty.
The
no win no fee solicitors are encouraging the victims to claim offering this no win no fee making the claim compensation culture rise continuously.
Amnesty says add these costs together and they could possibly clear out the potential damages given and could make the claim financially unviable at the outset.
Some victims probably wont be able to pursue a case against companies, for example the 69,000 people that are living in Bodo in Nigeria wouldn’t beable to persue a case against the multinational conglomerate Shell. These recently owned up to full culpability for two huge oil spills in the region.
It is outrageous that a government that wants to promote responsibility in capitalism but they are also giving carte blanche to these powerful goliath companies to abuse the human rights with no remedy for the victims said the director of Amnesty International UK Kate Allen.
The only ones that will benefit out of this is the multinational corporations that are defending the case, whose costs will be reduced at the expence of the damges to the victims. This should not go on and shouldn’t be allowed to happen. Saving the public purse is not even considered on the proposed reforms.
This ongoing battle about the bill is being turned in a party of political dispute by the government. The prime minister David Cameron is taunting the labour leadership to prevent any financial cuts.
Alot of the amendments in the Lords have been by Lord Newton a Conservative peers, he was a socail security minister under Margaret Thatcher, Liberal Democrat and crossbench peers.
Also the Taxpayers Alliance have said they are concerned and worried about these proposals.
There was a vote that took place on Wednesday night and the outcome was the Lords voted by 237 to 198 to preserve legal aid for appeals welfare benefit decisions. The vote beat the reforms in the governments bill. Who knows what will happen with the
no win no fee claim system in the future.
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