More commonly associated with an episode of compulsive behaviour or the favoured ride of old-school gangsters and Oxford detectives, AJAG is also apparently the collective name for a presumptuous group of individuals who contend that their fellow citizens should be allowed the luxury of legal redress in cases of personal injury.
AJAG, AKA Access to Justice Group, reckons that 77% of potential personal injury claimants wouldn’t bother pressing their case if Lord Jackson had his way and they risked paying the defence costs of successful defendants.
AJAG’s survey of 1,000 random Brits also found that the “compensation culture” is a traditional story reflecting the historical values of our society and possibly offering an explanation of its origins. It may not be a very good myth, however, if only 52% of us think we would be likely to claim for an injury at work.
Former MP, solicitor, maker of very long speeches in defiance of bogus bills, and current AJAG spearhead Andrew Dismal commented “The changes proposed by the Government will mean that ordinary people will find their access to justice severely restricted. The winners will be the insurance companies and the losers claimants.”
This would come as further good news for insurers, after a survey by Experian found that they are the fourth least likely kind of company to have gone out of business during 2010. Oil companies were the least likely to fail, and - further down the petrochemical food chain – plastics and rubber firms the most likely.
Overall, 1.04 per cent of UK businesses – mostly not insurers – became insolvent during 2010.
