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Some 31,000 jobs at law firms and other businesses in the personal injury (PI) sector are at ‘high risk’ of being lost if the government presses ahead with its reform agenda, according to an economics consultancy commissioned by the pressure group, Access 2 Justice.

The government yesterday gave little indication that it was prepared to yield over its proposed reforms to personal injury, arguing that raising the small claims limit would not stop claimants using lawyers. Justice minister Sir Oliver Heald questioned whether a £40 cut in premiums should be sacrificed to uphold a 25-year-old limit that operates “in the interests of solicitors”.

The government’s own assessment of the impact of its planned personal injury reforms “makes the implicit assumption that solicitors, and the civil justice system as a whole, produce no benefits to society”, according to independent economists. They said the reforms would benefit insurers at the expense of consumers and taxpayers.

A solicitor who faked documents and used his own money to pay compensation to clients as he struggled to keep on top of his workload, has been struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. A sympathetic tribunal said his naivety and inexperience “had been his downfall”.

Hudgells Solicitors has opened up a new front in the battle over the government’s proposed PI reforms by saying that there is a far better and easier way to reform rehabilitation provision that does not involve “the unexpected and dangerous reforms hidden away at the back of its recent consultation”.