Will cases against the NHS go only on a fixed fee basis?

The NHS was hit with £259 million in legal fees for claims in 2013-14 and some it just didn't make sense, for example, a patient received £11,800 in damages but the legal fees, paid by the NHS, were £175,000.

So the government is proposing solicitor's fees that are "more proportionate and reflect the amount of compensation" that the patients actually receive. The government's proposals will be open to public consultation and no doubt much debate come the autumn.

The Medical Defence Union were quick to support the effort. Dr Matthew Lee, professional services director at the Medical Defence Union, said:  "If it was decided to introduce a well-thought-out, fixed-cost structure for legal costs in clinical negligence claims that could only be a good thing and should result in legal fees becoming more affordable and proportionate to the compensation claimed by the patient."

Other solicitors were less kind: "This sounds like another massive attack on access to justice for everybody," Terry Donovan from  Kingsley Napley said.

Read the original article here.