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Small Claims (Courts)

: My hon. Friend makes an entirely apposite point. I was about to deal with it, but I did not have those figures, and I am grateful to hear about the Unison survey. That is undoubtedly a deterrent to claims being brought in the first place, which is illustrated in a vast quantity of research. The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers conducted a poll—it was done through MORI, so that it was properly validated—showing that about two thirds of those who suffered injury would not pursue their cases through the small claims court without the help of an independent solicitor. If 64 per cent. of people will not bring a claim without independent legal help, it means that two thirds will fail to get justice. Those who decide to go to claims farmers could lose a third or more of their claim through contingency fees for representation that is at best second rate, but without proceedings there is less leverage for getting better compensation out of insurance companies. That underestimates the real fear that the average person has of the legal system. The man and woman in the street are terrified of going to court. People, particularly professionals, lawyers and others who are used to dealing with bureaucracy and that sort of environment, or used to the environment in the Palace of Westminster, can underestimate the fear that the average person has of dealing with such a situation. I welcome the more interventionist approach of district judges, but unfortunately most cases would not get anywhere near a district judge because they would not get to court. When I did assessments for the specialist panel of the Law Society, not many district judges held that qualification. Not many of them are experts in that field. Some may go to a citizens advice bureau, but it is not properly equipped to advise people. People come to my surgery from time to time for advice, which I give for free. I advise people of the basics of making a small claim, but I am not sure how many follow it, even though the advice is probably worth rather a lot of money. The fact remains, however, that I would not be fit to represent people in court because of other demands. The difficulty is that we end up with a lack of equality. People are unlucky to have an injury; they are even more unlucky to have a claim and no lawyer to present it. For most, an accident is a one-off event. Most people never have accidents, but some do. However, the insurance claims assessors, whose job it is to minimise claims, are answerable to their bosses and shareholders, have no duty to the victim or the court—unlike solicitors, who have a duty to both the court and the victim—and deal with dozens of such cases day in, day out. In my early days as an articled clerk—I think that they are now called trainee solicitors—I remember having to meet claims assessors from the Municipal Mutual Insurance, Zurich Insurance, and other particularly bad companies, who tried to put one over on me in my naivety as a trainee. They were tricky individuals. If they try it on in that environment, I wonder what they do when dealing with the cases of ordinary, unrepresented people. This is not just a question of quantum—the value of the claim—it is also about liability. Perhaps I can illustrate this with some hypothetical cases that are typical of the cases that I dealt with. Let us consider Mrs. Patel, a pensioner, who trips on a broken pavement, falls over and breaks her cheekbone, or Mr. Smith, who has impaired sight, falls on a bus that pulls away from the bus stop too quickly and breaks his nose, or take Mr. Jones, who is clipped by a car when running across the road when the green man is flashing. What would those people do? It would be difficult to prove liability in those cases, which are not worth a lot of money—certainly less than £2,500—but which have a value. Where would those people get legal advice? How would they know who to claim against? Most people do not know how to track down the claims department in their local council or bus company, and do not have the wherewithal to take down the car number plate, if they have been hit, and track down the insurance company. Even when people make a claim, insurance companies often do not bother to reply; they hope that claimants will go away. How should such people write to them or find them? What about the language barrier for a pensioner like Mrs. Patel, who probably does not speak English or does not speak it well. Would the CAB be able to help them? That is unlikely. What about collecting evidence to support such cases? Most people who trip on a pavement might think about taking a photo of it, but how many people know that a photo is no good if it has nothing in it to show the scale, such as a matchbox, coin or ruler, to prove how big the trip is? That is the sort of basic advice that a person needs at the beginning of their case if they are to pursue successfully a personal injury claim for tripping on a pavement. There is some more free legal advice for those who might need it. How many people know how to keep track of witnesses, how to get witness statements for their claims and to keep in contact with those witnesses?