Meeting of the Parliament 26 April 2018
I have already dealt with that point. Notwithstanding the issue about judicial expenses, the architect of the policy south of the border has effectively recanted in his conversation with Sheriff Principal Taylor, because the policy has had the opposite effect, such that solicitors in England and Wales are not offering damages-based agreements. As mentioned by Daniel Johnson, John Finnie and Liam McArthur, the bill is designed to do the very opposite of that. It is designed to improve access to justice as far as litigation in Scotland is concerned.
In the letter to which I have alluded, Sheriff Principal Taylor said:
“My concern is that the recent amendment to the Bill will have the same consequence in higher value cases in Scotland as has happened in England & Wales; DBAs will not be offered to pursuers who have sustained catastrophic injury. The recent amendment thus poses an existential threat to DBAs being offered in higher value cases in Scotland. What will be the consequence of the amendment? The likely outcome is that cases will either not be raised at all or will settle for considerably less than the true value of the claim.”
Perhaps that helps to deal with Mr Kerr’s point.
Finally, the Law Society letter to the Justice Committee reiterates two practical issues that Sheriff Principal Taylor raised in his report. The first relates to settlement offers. At present, most of those are put forward by insurers without there being any breakdown for the different heads of claim, meaning that past loss and future loss are not broken down and separated when an offer is made. The second practical interest is that, as the legal services provider will be paid for past loss work and not for future loss, an obvious conflict of interests will be created between the solicitor and the client.