I add to what the Minister has said. I absolutely agree that sometimes the easy thing—I think that was her word—is just to accept and settle. I suspect that that is negligent at some point. There is an intermediate state, which is a business decision.
Unquestionably—I am sure that we shall come to this again—there are many occasions when it is much cheaper to settle than to fight to the death. Certainly it is much cheaper to settle than to go to court on many occasions. Yes, there are people who do not know that they should be defending themselves and more information should be given them to explain to them how they can defend themselves. I thoroughly approve of that. At the same time, we must think very carefully about the cost. At what point do people make a business decision? It is not a matter of who is right or who is wrong. They might decide that something could be settled for £1,500 which, if the matter went to court, could not possibly cost less than £5,000. That is a much more important influence than this debate has so far led us to realise.
Compensation Bill [HL]
Proceeding contribution from
Viscount Eccles
(Conservative)
in the House of Lords on Tuesday, 20 December 2005.
It occurred during Debate on bills
and
Committee proceeding on Compensation Bill [HL].
About this proceeding contribution
Reference
676 c277GC Session
2005-06Chamber / Committee
House of Lords Grand CommitteeSubjects
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