The proposals announced by Justice Secretary Ken Clarke will boost insurance company profits, disenfranchise thousands of those who have a genuine personal injury claim and not save the government any money, says leading claimant law firm Thompsons.

Tom Jones of Thompsons said:

"This is the dawn of access to limited justice for the lucky few.

"Insurers will save tens of millions of pounds whilst injured people who have a valid claim but one that isn’t absolutely open and shut, will be unable to find a lawyer able to help them. The lucky ones who can find a lawyer will be hit by deductions from their damages.

"Those with good cases but less than 75% chance of success will be left with no compensation because lawyers wont be able take on cases tomorrow that they would today. The most vulnerable claimants are being hung out to dry to increase insurance company profits.

"Whilst rightly condemning anything that smacks of a US-style compensation culture in the UK the Conservative led coalition is proposing to introduce the American model of deductions from compensation of up to a quarter.

"This is vindictive and unnecessary and will cost the Treasury overall because it will receive less revenue from a variety of sources as a result.

"The proposals will do nothing to stop claims companies advertising, they will simply cherry pick the most straightforward cases".