Home / Sources / Select Committees / Justice Committee / Mesothelioma claims
Select committee inquiry

Mesothelioma claims

Closed

Justice Committee · Opened 4 April 2014 · Closed 11 December 2014

1 recommendation
Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗

What the inquiry looked at

“The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) changed the funding arrangements for civil litigation claims under the conditional fee agreement. Sections 44 and 46 of LASPO provide that the winning party is no longer able to recover the success fee and the After The Event insurance premium from the losing party. Section 48 provides an exemption for mesothelioma claims until the Lord Chancellor has carried out a review of the likely effect of those sections in relation to such proceedings and published a report of the conclusions of the review. In a Written Statement dated 4 December 2013, the Government announced that it had decided to apply the LASPO provisions to mesothelioma cases with effect from July 2014. The announcement followed a Government consultation, ‘Reforming mesothelioma claims: A consultation on proposals to speed up the settlement of mesothelioma claims in England and Wales’ and was confirmed in the Government’s response to the consultation, published on 6 March 2014. The Justice Committee has decided to hold a short inquiry into the decision to apply the LASPO provisions to mesothelioma claims.”

The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.

What the government said

The government responded on 11 December 2014.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response.

Following the High Court's overturning of its decision to apply the LASPO reforms to mesothelioma cases, the government says it will undertake a section 48 review "in due course" and will take the court's judgment and the Committee's recommendations into account.

  • On commissioning an independent review of success fee risks and research on the ATE insurance market, the government says it "will bear those recommendations in mind" when considering what evidence and research may be necessary for the section 48 review. It states that it prefers to control legal costs "through market competition where possible".
  • On legislating so that insurers can be pursued directly, it says the 2010 Act needs "certain technical amendments", which it has introduced in the Insurance Bill, and it considers that this is "now in hand".
  • On speeding up evidence, it has included provisions in the Deregulation Bill to let HM Revenue and Customs disclose work records without a court order, and is working with others "to secure resources" to speed up hospital medical notes.
  • On deferring and re-consulting, it notes the High Court decision and says these issues "will be considered as part of" the section 48 review, with details of format and timing to follow "in due course".

Read the government's response ↗ Read the report ↗ Report an error

How the inquiry ran

Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 4 April 2014 to its close on 11 December 2014.

  1. Oral evidence 2 sessions
  2. Report 1 Aug 2014
  3. Government response 11 Dec 2014

What it recommended 1 recommendation · 0 conclusions

The committee's own words. Open an item to read it in full.

21We recommend that the Government commission an independent review of the risks of success and...
Recommended (the committee's words)
We recommend that the Government commission an independent review of the risks of success and failure of all mesothelioma cases to inform the setting of a maximum level of success fee, expressed as a percentage of costs, for lawyers representing claimants in such cases. We also recommend that the Government commission research to evaluate trends in the ATE insurance market in relation to personal injury claims since the provisions of Part 2 of LASPO came into force. 14 Mesothelioma Claims 4 The section 48 review

Evidence

Oral evidence sessions 2