Campaigns

Court Fee Rise for Care Proceedings

In May 2008 the Government increased the fees local authorities have to pay to take court proceedings to protect abused children and take them into care.

The fees rose from £150 to £4800 per case. We helped to co-ordinate an MP lobbying campaign to question the Government’s rationale, particularly in the light of the distressing Baby P case, and Jonathan Wheeler gave an interview live on Sky News on 18th November 2008 to publicise this problem.

In March 2010, the then Justice Secretary Jack Straw bowed to pressure from those lobbying for reform and agreed to abolish the fees from April 2011. This was in response to an independent review commissioned by the Government in the wake of the Baby P scandal. Lord Laming, who had previously conducted a review into child protection due to the perceived failures of Haringey Council, had warned in his report that the fees could influence a local authority's decision to initiate care proceedings for vulnerable youngsters. So the details of our campaign were moved to the archived section of our web site, and we congratulated ourselves as part of the wider lobbying group on its success.

Since then of course we have had a change of Government, and the credit crunch. Last week the new justice minister, Jonathan Djanogly issued a statement reversing Jack Straw's decision. Djanolgly said

"there is no justification that these fees should be abolished and as such they will remain... Protecting vulnerable children is paramount and I do not believe that continuing to charge these court fees will place vulnerable children at risk".

He added that it would be unlawful for local authorities to take finances into account when exercising their statutory duties to decide what is best for a child suspected of suffering harm within their family. He has however commissioned a further review once the family justice review panel has reported next autumn.

At Bolt Burdon Kemp we are continuing our campaigning to reverse this decision and abolish these fees. Contact Jonathan Wheeler if you want to get involved.

Solicitors who failed victims of financial miss selling

At the beginning of the decade the big news in the financial retail sector was the miss selling of financial products known as “Split Capital Investment Trusts”. These high risk products were often presented and sold to investors as medium to low risk financial products but in fact were extremely high risk and ultimately lost a substantial amount of money. The inevitable wave of litigation against financial advisors who had recommended the schemes has long since subsided, but unfortunately it did not all end well.

We are instructed in relation to an action against solicitors who sought to bring class actions against financial advisors in the civil courts. Litigation was often unsuccessful and in some cases abandoned at great costs to litigants who had already lost out on their investment which often meant their life savings. We say that rather than sue, these victims should firstly have been referred to the Financial Services Ombudsman who has the power to investigate claims and make awards of compensation up to £100,000 completely free of charge and risk. Instead they were drawn into complex and costly litigation which bore little fruit except for the lawyers.

We are interested in hearing from anyone who unsuccessfully tried to sue financial advisors for miss selling of these products, whether it was through a class action or otherwise, so that we can assist them in finally recovering some of the money they lost.

Contact Stephen Hill if you want to get involved.

Insurers using dodgy tactics to under-settle claims

Bolt Burdon Kemp's specialist road traffic accident compensation team is concerned at reports that some insurers are using dodgy tactics to under-settle claims. We know from our own experience that one insurer in particular, Quinn Direct, is door stepping victims of accidents caused by their policy holders, offering money in return for them agreeing to halt their claim, even where solicitors have been instructed. This happens before medical evidence has been obtained so that a proper assessment of the true value of the claim can't be understood, and in some cases insurers are targetting vulnerable people and children, sometimes within hours or days of an accident, pressurising them to drop their claims. The insurers say they are trying to speed up the compensation process but in fact their whole reason for doing this is to save money. Evidence shows that once a solicitor is instructed, claimants get more money because their claims can be properly assessed. Bolt Burdon Kemp are working with the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers and the Motor Accident Solicitors Society to highlight these practices, and bring pressure on the Financial Services Authority and MP's to regulate this practice, known as 'third party capture'. We need to stop victims of accidents getting victimised twice.

To find out more, or join our campaign contact Lee Champion or Peter Snee.

Criminal Injuries Compensation

We have successfully appealed individual cases on behalf of clients and given press interviews to highlight how unfair the Criminal Injuries compensation system is failing victims of crime.

Contact Jonathan Wheeler if you want to get involved.

Gurkhas Pension Rights

In 2008 we mounted a challenge to the Government’s review of Gurkha pension provision for members of the Brigade who retired after 1997. The court left the inequalities in place, but the decision to allow all retired Gurkhas to settle in the UK will see the matter re-opened.

Contact Philippa Tuckman if you want to get involved.

Time Periods for Child Abuse Claims

January 2008 saw the end of a long battle for us, when we took a test case to the House of Lords to challenge the time limits for bringing a child abuse compensation claim. Survivors of child abuse have particular difficulties in coming to terms with what happened to them in the past, and many feel unable to instruct a lawyer until many years afterwards. As a result of our legal challenge, which was supported by a parallel campaign to lobby MPs, and which received the support of the media, we secured a dispensation of the time limits in appropriate cases – which hadn’t been available in cases brought for direct assault before. Jonathan Wheeler was named one of the Hot 100 lawyers of the year in 2006 by The Lawyer Magazine as a result of his campaigning work in this area. See X & Y v London Borough of Wandsworth and our child abuse team’s ‘success stories’.

Contact Jonathan Wheeler if you want to get involved.