After experiencing a brief ‘Indian summer’ in late September/ early October, the weather is now turning cold again and it surely won’t be long until we are reaching for those hats, scarves and gloves in preparation for the, if the past two winters are anything to go by, seemingly inevitable deluge of heavy snow and ice.
The past two winters of 2009 and 2010 are said to have been the coldest in the UK for over 100 years, so not many of us will remember many worse winters. The cold weather bought with it heavy snow and ice, which lead to a huge increase in accidents and resulted in extremely busy periods for personal injury lawyers, such as ourselves, who were inundated with new claims and advice enquiries.
But how easy is it to make a claim against a local authority for compensation following an accident as a result of snow and ice? Well, the answer is unfortunately not very easy at all and this is illustrated in the case of Rhiannon Pace V City and County of Swansea 2007. In this case the accident victim was injured in a Road Traffic Accident caused by black ice on the road. It was accepted by the Judge in this case that the accident was caused by the ice, however he ruled that the local authority had not been negligent. When considering this case, the Judge considered two questions, the first of which is: Was the local authority’s winter maintenance plan proper and reasonable?
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OK – so we’ve been covering the fantastic news that referral fees for claims, such as referrals through legal expenses insurance / motor legal protection where your insurers will ‘sell’ your details on to a third party solicitor for cash, which forms part of a government agenda to make the world of compensation claiming more efficient.
One of the other areas has been surrounding the cut of the legal aid bill and potential changes to the no win, no fee system. The gist and result of the whole idea will result in a reduction in the number of payouts, which I imagine is intended for the costs of insurance to lower; although I’d love to see the day the insurers pass on saving to the consumer!
But, back to the main topic, sadly, proposals in place involve shifting some of the costs of the no win, no fee system to the Claimant from the Defendant. We strongly oppose such a notion, as it will result in innocent accident victims having their payouts slashed to cover costs the Defendant, i.e. the person or party at fault for the injuries, will no longer have to pay the full amount.
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… sadly, its kicking off in a way similar to Jonny Wilkinson’s in England’s Rugby World Cup opener against Argentina last Saturday; in the wrong way!
My recent articles have centred on the fantastic news that insurer’s referral fees will finally be banned following a parliamentary plan to initiate the practice becoming an illegality in the (hopefully) near future.
We, as an independent firm of specialist personal injury lawyers, have always spoken out against the practice of referral fees. We firmly believe, and have seen evidence proving the fact, that referral fees not only add no value to the claim of an injured victim, but they have the potential to destroy it.
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OK – so over the last few months I have been praising former Justice Secretary Mr Jack Straw for exposing the insurance industries “dirty secret” that they are responsible for the exponential increases in insurance premiums by selling claims on to lawyers for pure profit.
When the insurance companies have been telling you that the increase in premiums as a result of personal injury lawyers and claims has resulted in increases of up to 30%, it transpired that this was largely a symptom of your own insurance company encouraging potentially scrupulous claims by pushing you in to making one so they can cash in on up to £1,000 for referring your claim. Even if you’re genuine, they’ll make you claim using their referral fee solicitor; not because they are doing you a favour, but because they get paid to pass your personal details around.
We have spoken out against this on hundreds of occasions, as we never involve ourselves in referral fees, and have advised many victims of the referral fee system to change lawyers as soon as they can after they have been subject to poor service levels and potentially low payouts because their referral fee solicitor is too cash strapped to act for them in the right way thanks to wasting a huge portion of their budget on paying the fee.
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On the 9th September it was confirmed by the government that there would be a ban on referral fees for personal injury claims. A referral fee is a fee paid by a solicitor or claims management company in return for the details of people who have been involved in an accident, and have got good prospects for a successful personal injury claim.
This fee is often in the region of £200 to £1,000. Worst of all, the victims who’s details are getting passed to third parties probably do not want their details being distributed if they knew that they were. A solicitor will often pay this referral fee because they consider that in the long run they will be able to make money from the claim. For example, a solicitor may pay £400 for your details – they get you to pursue your claim with them and win it, and they get paid a few thousand pounds by the Defendant’s in respect of their costs. In other words, they make a tidy profit.
At The Injury Lawyers we have always spoken out about referral fees and have never paid a referral fee to any company. As such, we welcome this ban on referral fees. This is because we do not consider that they are a good thing for the client. For example, if we were to spend £400 on your buying your claim through a referral fee, that is £400 less we now have to spend on progressing your claim as efficiently as possible.
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Claiming compensation for injuries resulting out of a relatively straightforward road traffic accident is simple. Your claim can be over in a matter of weeks or months, and what’s best, with the right lawyer on hand, you won’t even have to go to that much effort – they will do all the work for you.
Prior to April 2010 claims for compensation from road accidents could take months or sometimes years. The Defendant had a period of 21 days to acknowledge your claim and then a further 3 months to investigate it; and that was just to provide an admission or denial of liability.
Things have changed thankfully. Now, what is required is for you to submit what is known as a Claims Notification Form or ‘CNF’ through an online portal on the Ministry of Justice website. Once your lawyers have done this on your behalf the Defendant must acknowledge the CNF within one business day and then they have a further 15 business days in which to admit or deny liability. This is wholly different from before. Liability could be admitted for your injuries within 16 days; whereas under the old system, investigations into your accident may not have begun at the same point. It really is a fast and straightforward process nowadays and an injury lawyer will be more than happy to take you through the process and make sure everything is done correctly.
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On the 9th September the media confirmed that the government had finally announced that it will ban the referral fees that are paid to insurance companies in return for them passing on the details of the victims of accidents.
This move is welcomed by us at The Injury Lawyers. We have always criticised these payments in the past because they are, in our opinion, bad for the client and the personal injury profession.
Referral fees are paid by some firms of solicitors, mainly to claims management companies and insurance firms, but it can be to anyone who passes on details of an injured person, such as a garage or even the police. Many insurance firms, large and small, have passed on the details of their policyholders after they have contacted them to report an accident that was not their fault. In return for these details, many personal injury solicitors pay a referral fee to the insurance company.
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The referral fees involved in personal injury claims is a topic we have blogged about and condemned on so many occasions. We, as in independent firm of specialist personal injury lawyers who hate the concept of referral fees where middlemen profit from injury victims in return for passing details around, are proud to have never been a part of it.
Just in the last few months we were ecstatic to hear that our former Justice Secretary Mr Jack Straw had exposed what has been called the insurance industries “dirty little secret” when he investigated how the details of one of his constituents was passed around for profit following a road accident. We were overjoyed to hear the investigations concluded that the real reason for insurance premiums being driven up was a symptom of the referral fees rackets.
Now, it appears we are finally making some headway in ridding the country of the referral fee disease.
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At The Injury Lawyers we are well aware that people who want to bring a claim for compensation generally want it over and done with as fast as possible. That is why we vow to get you the maximum compensation you deserve in the shortest possible time. That said, although we do all our work at our end as fast as we can, there will always be periods of time where we have to wait for the other side to respond and allow them time to do this. Of course, we can chase them up and make sure everything is going smoothly at their end as well; but inevitably there will be some small periods where we simply have to wait. Here is a quick guide to your compensation claim:
Most accidents, except for minor road traffic accidents, will be dealt with under the Pre-Action Protocol for Personal Injury Claims. This Protocol has been designed to achieve a speedy end to your compensation claim.
The first stage is to produce a letter of claim which outlines your accident precisely, details your injuries, and confirms why we believe the other side were negligent. Your expert injury lawyers will produce this for you and this letter should not take long at all. Once it is ready your lawyers will send it to the Defendant who then have a period of 21 days to acknowledge the letter of claim. In the most part, Defendant’s acknowledge this letter well within those 21 days and then either pass it ot their insurers or solicitors to deal with.
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Having a car accident is a bad enough experience; but when you find out the person that crashed into you is uninsured, you fill with dread and worry about the financial burden of damages.
However, this does not need to be the case anymore – the Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB), a not for profit organisation, is able to stand in for the defendant and allow you to make a claim for your injuries and losses. The MIB has a central fund which is contributed to by motor insurers. In effect, these contributions come from insurance premiums paid by the public. You will be contributing a small amount to this fund through your own insurance premium.
If the defendant refuses to give insurance details then this should be reported to the police immediately, as it is a criminal offence to withhold insurance details under the Road traffic Act. This is one of the key criteria you can proceed with in order to claim through the MIB. If you think you can claim through the MIB, ensure you follow the steps on the following link.
http://www.mib.org.uk/Customer+Services/en/Accidents+in+the+UK/Uninsured+Drivers+Agreement/Uninsured+Drivers.htm
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