Can we afford these lawyers and rights?

John Page · 20-05-2006, 02:44 PM

The Sun reports that

Quote:

FURIOUS John Reid last night ordered a curb on soaring compensation payouts to prisoners — which hit £4MILLION last year.

The Home Secretary demanded a cap on payouts and called for an urgent Home Office probe.

And he told the Prison Service to fight all compensation claims rather than settling out of court.

Only £26,085 of the total was awarded by courts — raising fears prisons pay up to avoid costly legal hearings.

One lag won £2.8million after a botched suicide attempt and another made a claim after his finger was bitten off by a horse.

Last night a Home Office source said: “John hit the roof when he was told about the payouts.

“We will no longer just roll over and fork out.”

Most payouts related to injuries and assaults.

But top lawyers Thompsons said crooks DESERVE compo.

Spokesman Tom Jones said: “They are humans — with rights.”

The total of legal aid claimed by lags for parole appeals was £2.4million last year — up THREE times on the figure four years ago.

Also - hello, Mikeuk - from the Financial Times

Quote:

Employers spent an estimated £68m last year defending sex discrimination hearings at employment tribunals, according to the Equal Opportunities Commission.

The bill would have been higher if the cost of equal pay claims were included, it said.

The bill for people taking sex discrimination claims to tribunals was almost as high at £51m. The figures did not include any estimate of the cost in terms of management time, said the commission.

It added that business and individuals fighting sex discrimination and equal pay claims at employment tribunals already faced big bills.

"The average cost of legal advice and representation for individuals is £4,400, while employers spend an average of £5,800 on legal costs for their defence, not including staff time," said Jenny Watson, who chairs the commission.

There had been 250,000 sex discrimination and 67,000 equal pay hearings in the 30 years since the sex discrimination and equal pay laws came into force, according to the commission.

Some 70 per cent of pregnant women treated unfairly by their employers chose to suffer in silence, many of them because of the cost and difficulty of pursuing claims, it said.

The commission wants the law changed to allow people with similar claims to roll up the cases into a single representative action, similar to class actions pursued in the US. This would make it easier and cheaper to hear claims.

It wants greater legal protection for carers who want to change their working hours to look after the sick and elderly.

The government is conducting a review of anti-discrimination laws with the aim of producing a single equality bill. A green paper is due later this summer.

The commission wants changes to the law to make it cheaper and easier to pursue claims. It also wants private sector companies to be required to conduct "light touch" compulsory equality checks to see whether their women employees are paid less than men doing the same sort of work

If a potential gap were uncovered, employers could introduce further measures including a full review of pay systems. Ms Watson said that many forward-looking employers had recognised that "preventing problems before they start works much better than tackling them after they arise".

From next year, public sector employers will be ex-pected to conduct equality reviews to identify pay gaps between men and women employees. The government has set its face against introducing similar measures for private sector companies, which would be strongly opposed by business organisations such as the CBI.

Human rights in the UK should be for UK citizens. And we need to curb spending on lawyers whatever their trade union (the courts) say.

It would be nice to see UKIP commenting.

C_steam · 20-05-2006, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Spokesman Tom Jones said: “They are humans — with rights.”

in some cases. In others, more serious crimes, as far as I'm concerned they have given up their individual membership of humanity.

Being 'human' is like a qualification based on membership of your society. Kiddie fiddlers, serial murderers and the like are NOT human - they happen to be of species Homo Sapiens but have sacrificed any right to be Human due to their inhuman behaviour. And hence, have no human rights.

kernow · 20-05-2006, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by C_steam

Quote:

Spokesman Tom Jones said: “They are humans — with rights.”

in some cases. In others, more serious crimes, as far as I'm concerned they have given up their individual membership of humanity.

Being 'human' is like a qualification based on membership of your society. Kiddie fiddlers, serial murderers and the like are NOT human - they happen to be of species Homo Sapiens but have sacrificed any right to be Human due to their inhuman behaviour. And hence, have no human rights.

I know you don't normally like people using whole quotes C_steam, but as every word of yours expresses exactly how feel, so I thought you might let me off just this once :wink:

brian pearson · 20-05-2006, 09:07 PM

Echoed. The self serving legal leeches who use the human rights laws to justify this madness will continue until we withdraw from this nonsense.

UKIP needs to be very vocal on this issue.

mkpdavies · 20-05-2006, 09:19 PM

I nearly kicked my T.V. screen in this week watching Question Time.

I just can't understand how people can open their arms to people, only for those same people to throw that kindness back in their faces and the stupid hippies still put THEIR "human rights" above those of the victims and future victims of this country.

Talk about soft touch.

20-05-2006, 09:19 PM	#5 (permalink)
mkpdavies Uber Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Woking Posts: 32,078 Party: Libertarian Party	I nearly kicked my T.V. screen in this week watching Question Time. I just can't understand how people can open their arms to people, only for those same people to throw that kindness back in their faces and the stupid hippies still put THEIR "human rights" above those of the victims and future victims of this country. Talk about soft touch. __________________ http://brits4ronpaul.blogspot.com/ http://wokinglibertarians.blogspot.com/ http://lpuk.org My ignore list Labour, Lib Dems

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20-05-2006, 09:07 PM	#4 (permalink)
brian pearson Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: nottinghanshire Posts: 827	Echoed. The self serving legal leeches who use the human rights laws to justify this madness will continue until we withdraw from this nonsense. UKIP needs to be very vocal on this issue.