Law Update: the Claimant and allegations of fundamental dishonesty

On 13th April 2015 Section 57 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 came into force.  The Act gave the Court new powers to deal with Claimants who were found to be fundamentally dishonest with regards to their claim for personal injury or clinical negligence.

Fundamental dishonesty can be in relation to part of the claim such as over exaggeration of injuries or losses as well as the more obvious accident that never happened.

The sanctions state that part or all of a claim that would have been successful can be struck out if a Claimant is found to be fundamentally dishonest.  The Claimant can also be ordered to pay the Defendants costs.

It can be agreed that a Claimant who sets about deliberately attempting to mislead the Court by faking an injury or falsifying details of their losses should be held to account by the Court.  What of those genuine Claimants who make innocent mistakes when pleading their claim?

The problem with the Act is it only calls to account Claimant’s. What sanctions are in place for Defendants who actively seek to delay settlement in cases where a Claimant is elderly or dying in an attempt to save costs at the end of the case?  Is it not fundamentally dishonest of a Defendant to waste time and money defending a claim that is un-defendable when an apology should be given at the outset?  Is it not dishonest to refuse interim payments in cases where Claimant’s have been left financially distraught because of the injury so that they have no option but to under settle their claims to achieve swift payment?  Isn’t that the Defendant benefitting from the Claimant’s misfortune?

The Act seems to predispose that Claimants are dishonest and opportunistic wishing to ‘cash in’ on the mistakes of others.  Although genuine cases of fraud and deception should be sanctioned, we must remind ourselves that the Claimant is the injured party in these Proceedings and often the consequences of another’s mistakes have had a serious impact on the Claimant’s life.