On April 21st NHS England published its General Practice Forward View. This has been hailed by the Royal College of GPs as the “most significant GP deal since the 1960s”. In amongst the announcement of an extra £2.5bn in funding for Primary Care, the NHS have made mention of their plans to cap claimant lawyers' fees in clinical negligence cases.

"Indemnity costs have risen in the NHS in England significantly in recent years. This is the result of the rising number of claims, and the rising level of awards made by the courts"

With the blame for the rising cost of indemnity insurance being laid firmly at the door of personal injury solicitors we await the outcome of the forthcoming consultancy. Previously a cap on cases with a value of below £100,000 has been mentioned:

"The Department of Health will be consulting shortly on the options for introducing a Fixed Recoverable Cost scheme to cap the level of recoverable costs for claimant lawyers on clinical negligence claims. The aim is to make the cost of claimant lawyers more proportionate to damages and defence costs."

Lawyers undertaking claimant personal injury work  are already under pressure, and these proposals, if implemented, will not make it any easier for PI specialists. 

For more information, download the NHS white paper, General Practice Forward View, using the link below.