Time plea for compensation cases

The claim period for personal injury cases is currently three years

The Scottish Law Commission is calling for people who are injured in accidents to be given more time to claim compensation.

In a report published later, the body recommends a five-year window of opportunity instead of the current three-year limit.

It is thought the move will help those involved in occupational disease cases.

However, the commission is not in favour of allowing old cases which were extinguished before 1984 to be revived.

It said it believed such cases would prove difficult to evaluate legally.

In addition, because of the time elapsed, significant amounts of evidence may have been lost.