Viewpoint: Justice for all will disappear

Making ill-judged and insensitive comments to the press is one thing but the legacy of Lord Young's report and its wholehearted endorsement of the Jackson Review could cause far more lasting damage, not just to the legal expenses market in which brokers play such an important part but to the justice system itself.

Combined with the planned cuts to Legal Aid announced by justice secretary Ken Clarke MP, implementing Lord Jackson's proposals would dramatically reduce public access justice.

Access to justice is not just nice to have but a fundamental human right; societies rightly measure themselves against the yardstick of how easily and equally their populations can access the justice system.

Suggestions that the justice gap left by the proposals and the Legal Aid cuts will be filled by before-the-event insurance represent a failure to understand the sector and insurance. They also disregard those on low incomes, the less likely to be insured.

Like brokers, we legal expenses insurers have proved ourselves highly adaptable and resilient. Smaller legal expenses insurance providers, especially those aligned more to the after-the-event market, will be vulnerable, though new models and products will be developed.

Meanwhile, the large uninsured group without access to justice will grow as premiums, already increasing in the wake of recession, balloon to accommodate the state unloading itself of burdens.

Lord Jackson's original brief was to "promote access to justice at proportional cost". After two financially turbulent years and Lord Young's brief return to government, it seems that access to justice is now expendable in the pursuit of cutting cost.