Legal fees to be capped for NHS clinical negligence cases

The NHS was charged £259 million in legal fees in 2013-2014 and the new plans come as a part of the Department for Health’s long term plan to save the NHS up to £80 million a year.

The NHS Litigation Authority did manage to recoup £74 million by challenging excessive legal costs, but the new proposals aim to help them further by putting strict limits on legal bills. Under the new rules, legal costs for claims up to £100,000 would be fixed and reflect a percentage of the compensation received by the patient.

There is currently no limit on legal fees, which means lawyers can charge large fees for low-cost cases. Officials gave one example where the NHS paid out £175,000 in legal fees when the patient only received £11,800 in damages.

Health Minister, Ben Gummer, said: "Safe, compassionate care is my upmost priority and to achieve this, the NHS must make sure every penny counts.

"Unscrupulously, some lawyers have used patient claims to load grossly excessive costs onto the NHS and charge far more than the patient receives in compensation."

However, some solicitors have warned that the move could make patients more vulnerable and deny them access to justice.

Terry Donovan, from the law firm Kingsley Napley, said: "Fees are already tightly controlled, with the courts managing costs carefully as a result of recent reforms. Costs are already capped and limited.

"These so-called low value cases under £100,000 still involve cases where people have had serious injuries and lives have been destroyed.

"Costs can be very proportionate if the NHS will admit liability promptly when it's appropriate.

"But defendants drive up costs if they don't admit liability early on and the case ends up in court."

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