Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson leads challenge to legal aid cuts

Posted 09/03/2012

The current proposals to prevent access to justice for many people in claims of medical negligence through the use of legal aid funding is being highlighted by former Paralympic champion, Tanni Grey Thompson.The controversial Bill, which has already been defeated three times, is being debated again this week in the House of Lords. At present the recommendations are that clinical negligence will be removed from legal aid except in cases involving babies where brain damage was sustained during their first eight weeks of life.Baroness Thompson highlights that these cuts are highly discriminatory and will deny access to justice for thousands of injured individuals.Sharon Allison, medical injury lawyer at Ashtons Legal says: “It is agreed that birth injury claims are at the most serious end of the spectrum and I am pleased to see that the Government have acknowledged that funding must continue for these cases. However it is hard to see the justice in telling parents of a toddler who has suffered significant damage where there has been an avoidable error to diagnose meningitis, that they are not entitled to the same publicly funded support.””This does not just extend to claims involving children. Our firm sees clients of all ages who have lifelong consequence of medical errors and without legal aid they simply would have no form of legal redress at all. The future of access to justice for medical negligence claims is very concerning.”