Compensation Culture Flashcards
What part of the compensation culture is tort law concerned with? Why is there an issue here?
Tort law is concerned with compensation culture relating to a greater willingness to bring litigation - Furedi, Bristow
Compensation culture also covers fraudulent insurance claims - ‘Claimed and Shamed’
Both do cover compensation for injury, but tort law is concerned with court intervention
What does Kevin Williams say is at the core of compensation culture? How does this align with what Cameron says in the preamble to Lord Young’s report?
Increased willingness to seek legal redress for their grievances.
Cameron claims that people will sue even for minor incidents.
What goes into the introduction?
Compensation culture was coined in the papers in the early 1990s.
It is a ubiquitous, untechnical, quasi-legal term.
There is no single definition of compensation culture.
It is hotly debated whether there is a compensation culture, or whether there is a perception of one.
What does Annette Morris say about compensation culture?
It is an amorphous term.
What does Kevin Williams say about the compensation culture? How does this align with what Cameron says?
Williams says that a willingness to seek legal redress is a core of compensation culture.
Cameron claims that people will claim even for minor injuries.
What does Lord Young say?
Compensation culture represents a society that is becoming more litigious.
‘Where there is a blame there is a claim’
What does James Hand say?
This society is beginning to mirror the litigiousness of America.
(We’ll take your pain and make it rain)
What does Lord Dyson say about the compensation culture?
That it is a perception.
This position has a great deal of empirical support.
What empirical evidence does Hand give?
Lewis, Morris and Oliphant claim that the tort system has not been flooded with an increasing number of personal injury claims.
Between 2000 and 2005, employer’s liability claims fell by 20% and clinical negligence claims by 34% (areas notorious for hyperbolic news coverage) - a report by Lord Phillips.
The biggest increase of 68% was for road-traffic injury claims.
What does the Law Society say about the compensation culture?
A 2003 report stated that there is no compensation culture, and,
The courts are robust enough to keep out bogus claims.
What does Genn say about the figures?
Figures are insufficient to establish an overarching trend towards claiming.
*However the evidence suggests that the there isn’t actually a compensation culture.
Although we should not assume that public opinion follows the media, the commentators put unanimous blame on the media for the perception of the compensation culture.
What reasons does Morris give for alarm at the perceived compensation culture?
- Evidence of a moral decline.
- Unsustainable expense due to excessive claiming.
- Negative impacts on the affordability/availability of insurance.
Explain the moral decline argument.
‘What can I claim for my asthmatic budgie?’
Hand - making sales has taken precedence over accurately portraying the problem in the papers.
Lord Young - conditional (no win no fee) agreements have compounded the problem.
What is the effect of the moral decline argument?
A decline in personal responsibility.
Worryingly, a stigma being attached to all forms of claiming, undermining legitimate tort claims.
Even though the total number of claims is decreasing!
What’s wrong with the excessive cost of claiming argument?
All of the academic literature expresses regret at the lack of empirical evidence.
Furedi and Bristow claim that £16.6bn has been paid in NHS clinical negligence claims since 2011, but there is uncertainty as to whether this is an excessive amount.
Medical negligence will inevitably occur and is costly.
