The 1990s:

This decade saw:

1. The effective demise of civil legal aid for personal injury claims. 2. The birth of “No win – no fee” Agreements.
3. Referral fees become the norm.
4. Extensive advertising.
5. The increase in the number of personal injury claims.
6. The increase in costs being incurred in the course of litigation. 7. The birth of the Civil Procedure Rules.

The 2000s:

This decade saw the aftermath of 1 – 7 above.

Many observers, insurers and politicians concluded that the country was suffering from a “compensation culture” akin to that seen in the USA. None of those observers, insurers or politicians had the good grace to point out that the purported “culture” was a direct result of what was lawfully taking place in the 1990’s. All of the “developments” in the 90’s (listed above) were the result of consultation, debate and Government implementation.

However, rather than take responsibility for their actions, the Government and insurers prefer the simpler approach : blame greedy Claimant’s and their ambulance chasing lawyers!

The 2010s:

2010: David Cameron appoints Lord Young to report.
2010: Lord Young prepares a thorough report which concludes inter-alia that the compensation culture is more myth than fact. It was found that there was a definite “perception” of there being a compensation culture but that in fact no such culture existed.
2011: Kenneth Clarke, Justice Secretary proposes to tackle the compensation culture (rather futile in view of Lord Young’s findings).
2014: Chris Grayling vows to get rid of compensation culture (the second Justice secretary in succession who has failed to read Lord Young’s report!).
2015: Michael Gove plans to deal with compensation culture.

So it seems that the Government have decided that despite their own report, contrary to it’s express and unequivocal conclusion, we do have a compensation culture.

If, which is clearly not proven or accepted, we do have a compensation culture, it has been caused by the events of the 1990’s as listed above. None of those events were caused by greedy, fraudulent Claimants or their ambulance chasing lawyers. In fact all of the events were sanctioned by the Government of the day.