Justice for bereaved families in England and Wales trails behind the rest of the UK.

In England and Wales, your loved one’s life costs the wrongdoer just £15,120.  The situation is worse here than the rest of the UK. Northern Ireland’s system is not much better but the justice department is making inflationary increases to the statutory sum paid, and has increased it very recently to £17,200.

The system is different and seems much fairer in Scotland, where the Courts make case-by-case decisions and pay meaningful amounts of compensation to people who are bereaved because of the needless deaths of their loved ones.

“When someone is killed at work or on the road because of someone else’s negligence, some relatives are eligible for compensation to help atone for their loss,” explained John McQuater, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) which represents injured people and bereaved families. 

“But the system is out-of-touch and needs proper reform if it is ever to deliver justice for grieving relatives,” he said.

The list of family members who are eligible for bereavement compensation is very strict, and out-of-touch. Only bereaved spouses, civil partners, and parents of under-18s, and couples living together for more than two years are eligible.

A sibling or step-parent might be the closest relative someone has, and these relationships are totally disregarded, under the law for these payments.

Justice for bereaved families in England and Wales trails behind the rest of the UK.