Government plans to reform personal injury claims in England and Wales would take the compensation system back to the dark ages and would mean many occupational disease victims would lose out, lawyers have said.

The warning came after a Ministry of Justice consultation proposed removing or restricting the right to full compensation for pain and suffering as a result of car crash whiplash injuries, But legal experts say workers suffering debilitating occupational diseases would also lose out as a result of the planned changes.

One proposal – raising the limit for cases in the small claims court for all personal injury claims from £1,000 to £5,000 – would mean most workers suffering an occupational disease would have neither the resources  nor the legal support to pursue a genuine claim. “The right to compensation for an injury caused by someone else’s negligence has been an important aspect of civil justice for centuries, and with good reason,” said Neil Sugarman, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL). “In a society where no-one bats an eyelid about claiming compensation for a late train or being mis-sold an insurance policy, the idea that injured people should be treated as some kind of second class citizens simply beggars belief.”

The government has also proposed forcing the vast majority of personal injury victims into a court system better suited to arguments about faulty fridges than bodily injury, the APIL president added. Tom Jones of the personal injury law firm Thompsons Solicitors, said: “If they go ahead, these government reforms will hit injury victims, on the roads and in the workplace, while lining the pockets of car insurer CEOs and their shareholders.” Unions have pointed out that compensation cases have played an important role in establishing the links between workplace exposures and occupational diseases. They warn that changing the system would impact on this process and related prevention efforts.