In recent years there has been a backlash against the compensation pay outs, which have been seen by many as fuelling a ‘compensation culture’ in the UK. Since being coined by Bernard Levin writing in The Times in 1993 the term has taken on negative connotations, synonymous with spurious or fraudulent claims for personal injuries and traumas. The backlash against the UK’s ‘compensation culture’ has been led by high profile figures from the insurance industry and politicians, especially former Home Secretary Jack Straw as well as various social commentators and lobbying groups. Many have argued that a US style compensation culture has become entrenched in the UK, which has distorted the legal system and driven consumer prices up. However, the roots of the UK’s compensation laws go much further back in history to Dark Ages and the Anglo-Saxons; portraying it as an unjust American import devalues a system with a long and important past for UK law.
The Dark Ages are not a time which conjures up visions of a civil society of law abiding citizens under the law. In fact the period of Anglo-Saxon conquest and settlement following Roman Britain was defined by loss of Latin civilisation and the legal frameworks within it. Imperial law codes were forgotten as the barbarian invaders brought their own customs and traditional legal codes. Among these customs was the concept of weregeld, or ‘man-price’, which was the system of compensation used by the Anglo-Saxons. This would go on to provided the base for the current English legal system, as barrister Martin Burr has stated, ‘modern English law can be traced back to Anglo-Saxon times’, and that, ‘Common Law can be traced back through these customary laws to Anglo-Saxon times and to Anglo-Saxon law’.
The amounts of compensation awarded in the Anglo-Saxon era England were first recorded in the Law of Æthelberht, the King of Kent in the 7th Century. The original manuscript no longer exists but a copy made in the 12th Century; the Textus Roffensis, or Rochester Book still remains and can be viewed at Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre. The Law of Æthelberht is thought to be the first Germanic language law code and to be the oldest manuscript written in English. It provides a fascinating insight into the legal framework which existed in early Medieval England and was itself a base on which future Kings would create their legal structures. The Doom book or legal code of Alfred the Great (849 – 899) was written with consultation to the Law of Æthelberht.
The amounts of Weregeld awarded by the code are similar to the amounts which are specified in other Germanic continental legal codes such as the Lex Ribuaria from the Rhineland and Swabian and Bavarian codes, which suggest a common shared tradition. It is though that the code was written around the time of the conversion of the Kentish Kingdom to Christianity and was intended to enshrine ecclesiastical rights and portray the Kingdom as civilised. The codes are hierarchical and place men of the church second only to the King in importance.
As well as reinforcing the social order and Christianity’s new position within it the codes were concerned with the preservation of the peace and the majority of them deal with compensation to be awarded for personal injuries. The importance of weregeld compensation in Anglo-Saxon society is illustrated by amount of pages devoted to it in the surviving Anglo-Saxon written codes. Of the manuscripts which have survived there are 419 clauses devoted to criminal law and 91 concerning private and civil law; with 238 clauses the law codes concerning weregeld received by far the most attention. The importance of the weregeld in Anglo-Saxon society has been explained by the man regarded as the founder of English legal history, F.W Maitland who stated in English Law Vol 1 that, ‘we find that the idea of wrong to a person or his kindred is still primary, and that of offence against the common weal secondary, even in the gravest cases.’
It is thought that the written legal codes were meant more for a guide for action, rather than steadfast rules to be applied and formalised pre-existing oral legal traditions. They go into great detail on the subject of weregeld payments. Using a rough conversion of 1 Saxon Penny to £20, 1 Saxon Shilling to £100 and 1 Saxon Pound to £4800, we are able to compare Anglo-Saxon awards with typical compensation amounts today, which is especially interesting for a practicing personal injury solicitor like myself.
According to the laws of Æthelberht the loss of a thumb was remedied by payment of weregeld of 12 Saxon Shilling, which equates to about £1,200 today, and the loss of a middle finger was 4 Saxon Shilling, or £800 in modern terms. Today we would typically expect to see compensation for a finger injury at around £39,000 for the loss of a thumb and around £13,000 for the loss of a middle finger. It is interesting to see that the relative importance of the two digits has changed over the years, with the thumb appearing more necessary today than in the Dark Ages.
The Anglo-Saxon compensation for injuries to the feet was much less proportionate than the present where the amputation of a foot would typically be awarded around £78,000 in compensation, compared with 50 Saxon Shilling, or £5000 in the 7th century. Whereas the compensation awards for the loss of a big toe between the ages are more proportionate with there being a 10 Saxon Shilling, or £10000 weregeld, which typically receives around £22,350 in compensation today.
For the Anglo-Saxons the laming of a shoulder would mean recompense of 30 Saxon Shillings, or £400 in today’s money. Today the typical compensation claims pay-out for a shoulder injury can range from around £8000 to £34,000 depending on the extent of the injury. The modern upper amount for an injury to a shoulder would have exceeded that for causing the death of a freeman in Anglo-Saxon England.
These figures are only rough estimates and the weregeld amounts do not include factors such as emotional damage, loss of future earnings and legal costs which are important aspects in modern personal injury compensation cases, as the Anglo-Saxons didn’t have such notions. The legal rule of restitutio in integrum, meaning ‘restoration to original state’ did not apply as it does now. Rather weregeld provided Anglo-Saxon society, which lacked strong central control such as police, judiciary and prisons a means to amicably resolve disputes locally at the shire level.
This is particularly important as at the time blood feuds and vendettas were a common reaction to harm of dishonour caused and could have very damaging effects on the community and society. Regions such as Corsica and Sicily were hampered in their creation of a modern nation state by the persistence of vendetta cultures which prevented the rule of law and social stability required. Weregeld allowed for the social order to be maintained and potentially damaging vendettas to be nipped in the bud allowing for a semblance of stability in a particularly unsettled period.
The granting of access to legal recourse to all of their citizens by the Anglo-Saxon kings instituted a legal tradition that is alive to this day. This should be remembered, especially in the wake of the LASPO Act which has curtailed UK citizens’ access to finding legal resolutions to their issues. The Anglo-Saxons knew full well what denying legal recourse to the citizens could lead to; a divisive tit-for-tat vendetta culture. The lessons history has for us should be heeded; if citizens have no access to justice they could well take the law into their own hands, which could have devastating effects on society at large. Compensation has been a part of England’s culture for hundreds of years in fact it is one of its oldest pillars of civil society and performs a valuable role in maintaining stability. It is as necessary a part of our legal and civil society as it was a thousand years ago.
This article was written by personal injury compensation specialist solicitor Caroline Sergeant from Paul Rooney Legal.
