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The disparate aims of tort law

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Perhaps sensing a ‘win’, powerful insurance companies have continued to lobby the gov ernment, 60 keeping the issue on the political agenda. In 2013, the (then) Justice Secretary Chris Grayling, referring to a range of measures introduced in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, stated: We [the Government] are turning the tide on the compensation culture. It’s pushing up the cost of insurance, and making it more expensive to drive a car or organise an event. It’s time the whole system was rebalanced. 61 In 2016, the (then) Justice Secretary, Liz Truss (later Prime Minister) intervened, pledging to cut down on ‘whiplash claims’, stating that ‘[f]‌or too long some have exploited a rampant com pensation culture and seen whiplash claims an easy payday, driving up costs for millions of law-abiding motorists.’ 62 This was taken up by her successor, David Gauke, who, notwithstand ing government figures suggesting that personal injury claims were in ‘freefall’, 63 oversaw the passing of the Civil Liability Act 2018 which seeks to curb the number of whiplash claims, which he deemed were ‘symptomatic of a wider compensation culture’. 64 More recently, personal injury lawyers have begun to ‘fight back’. The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers’ #RebuildingShatteredLives campaign, launched in November 2020, seeks to ‘to tip the balance back towards empathy for injured people and put them at the heart of policy-making’: The myths and misconceptions enshrouding personal injury have made people feel that if they try to seek redress they are fraudsters, or that they are part of the problem which has led to the so-called ‘compensation culture’. In fact, multiple studies have found that the ‘com pensation culture’ does not exist. But the belief that personal injury claims are a problem to be tackled is still strong among policymakers. . . . The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012 was unjust and based on the deeply offensive notion that injured people should have ‘skin in the game’. The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 was based on the misconception that businesses are sued unfairly by injured employees. . . . Rebuilding Shattered Lives is a push-back against this unfair situation. 65 In fact, both views—as to the existence or otherwise of a compensation culture—share the same concern. Whether there really is an unhealthy expectation that all losses or injury ought to be compensated, or whether the real danger lies in the perception that such a culture exists, a 66 consequence of both views is that people become over-cautious, abandoning activities

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60. See e.g. Labour MP, Jo Stevens’s, comment that the Civil Liability Bill reads like one that has been written by the insurance industry for the insurance industry (Civil Liability Bill [Lords], 4 September 2018, vol 646, col 94). 61. Ministry of Justice news release ‘Government acts on compensation culture’ 1 May 2013. 62. Brian Milligan, ‘Whiplash plans to “cut car insurance premiums by £40”’ BBC News, 17 November 2016. 63. Dropping to their lowest in a decade (John Hyde ‘Compensation culture? Stats reveal claims numbers in freefall’ Law Society Gazette 24 April 2018). This fall has continued (John Hyde ‘Personal injury claims fall again to eight-year low’ Law Society Gazette 9 March 2020). 64. The Civil Liability Act 2018 came into force in May 2021 which introduces (among other things) tariffs reducing the level of compensation for whiplash injuries. 65. Mike Benner ‘Trust in PI Lawyers’ Law Society Gazette 18 November 2020. See further https://rebuilding- shattered-lives.org.uk/about-us/ . 66. As suggested by Lord Young n 59 19. PROPERTY OF OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS