For our clients whose lives have been turned upside down by negligence, financial security is hugely important. 

One question we are often asked is ‘how much compensation will I receive’. 

Our clients don't ask that because they're greedy - they ask it because they need to plan ahead to employ carers, fund private therapy, buy an accessible property, pay the mortgage and so on. 

On 11 January next year, my answer to that question from a client will be different from the answer I would give to the very same client the day before. 

This is because the personal injury discount rate will change on 11 January 2025 to 0.5%, from the current rate of -0.25%. I've already started answering clients' questions along the lines of 'how can it be that my compensation is this today but less tomorrow?' There is good reason for this but I'll save you all an explanation here (if you want to read more, the gov.uk site is a good place to start).

Putting aside the question of what the discount rate is, to me there are two fundamental points: 

• first, it must always be underpinned by the principles of justice and fair restitution; 
• and secondly, it should give certainty to claimants. 

Claimants have already been through the trauma of their life-changing in a split second. They now need certainty and security. 

The review process started in July this year and over the last six months, claimants and defendants have faced uncertainty, second-guessing what the rate may become and when, which in some cases has run alongside critical points in their claim. 

In our experience, there have been occasions where this uncertainty has been deployed as a strategy to put pressure on claimants to accept a lower amount of compensation. Any prospective change in the discount rate, no matter which way it swings, puts significant pressure on all parties impacted by the discount rate, particularly those involving catastrophic or life-changing injuries.

To ease the impact that a sudden change can have on all parties, a more gradual, phased approach to the rate change could be considered. This could avoid the current situation of the value of a claimant’s claim changing drastically from one day to the next. 

In our experience with catastrophic injury cases, we have to advise our clients that the amount of compensation they are entitled to could change by hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds on the day a rate change happens.