The Brisbane lawyer fighting for compensation for Dr Patel’s victims has accused Prime Minister John Howard of compensation bigotry.

Lawyer Peter Carter will back any moves for a rethink of December, 2002, legislation which limited negligence liability payments.

“The legislation is a form of bigotry against the ordinary person who dares to seek compensation after adversity,” he said. “Prejudice against these people is as profound as racism.”

Compensation lawyers have taken a financial haircut since December 2002. Advertising for accident and negligence victims was restricted.

But Mr Carter said the real losers were negligence victims.

“The legislation broke a long-standing convention dating back hundreds of years whereby the wrongdoer is responsible to compensation the negligence victim,” he said.

The 100-point sliding scale of damages means accident victims with 10 per cent impairment may receive only $10,000. It gets worse for injuy victims not covered by industrial awards. Some lawyers find it unrealistic to take on cases where compensation is likely to be less than $20,000.

But lawyers say they can live with strict liability provisions in the 2002 legislation.

Mr Carter echoed Justice de Jersey on the changes.

“The laws weeded out a lot of shonky operators or employers who were unprofessional and not safety conscious. But on the other hand, the hip pocket incentive for due care was removed. In effect, recklessness was given a green light.”

There were three serious sticking points with the 2002 legislation. Capping liability payouts at $250,000 removed the ‘big ticket’ item of future economic loss.

In addition, metres of new red tape were rolled out and those restrictions were placed on victims’ ability to recover legal costs.