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Amnesty International has urged UK peers to oppose legal reforms, explaining that ‘No Win No Fee’ changes could prevent human right lawsuits. The international rights organisation has written to every member of the House of Lords, calling for opposition to government plans which will prevent overseas victims of human rights abuses from suing multinational UK companies. Government has already suffered six defeats in the House over amendments to the legal aid, sentencing and punishment of offenders bill, despite the proposed changes potentially saving £350m per year from the Ministry of Justice budget. With the ‘No Win No Fee’ system reforms set to be the subject of further voting processes, Kenneth Clarke, Justice Secretary has attacked the ‘No Win No Fee’ legal system for fuelling a “compensation culture”. But Amnesty warns that changes would require both the lawyer’s success fee and the after the event insurance premium to be paid for out of the compensation awarded to victims. "Taken together, these costs are likely to wipe out potential damages awarded and will make the claim financially unviable at the outset," Amnesty says. "Under the proposed reforms, it is unlikely that victims such as the 69,000 people living in Bodo, Nigeria, would have been able to pursue a case against the multinational conglomerate Shell, who recently admitted full culpability for two massive oil spills in the region." Kate Allen, director of Amnesty International UK, said: "It is outrageous that a government which professes to want to promote 'responsible capitalism' is giving carte blanche to powerful goliath companies to abuse human rights with no remedy for their victims. "The proposed reforms will not even come with a saving to the public purse. The only beneficiaries will be the multinational corporations defending the case whose costs will be reduced at the expense of the victims' damages. This should not be allowed to happen." http://www.paulrooney.co.uk/?l=134
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