It was interesting to read in the Telegraph this week that Axa Insurance has taken the commendable stance of now refusing to accept referral fees for personal injury claims. This announcement came shortly after Jack Straw exposed what he considers the insurance industry’s ‘dirty little secret’ of referral fees.
A referral fee is a fee paid by a solicitor to an insurance company who will in return provide the details of their policy holder to the solicitor so that they can hopefully deal with their claim for compensation. As a spokesman for the Admiral Group explains: ‘When one of our customers calls us for help with a claim that was not their fault, we refer them on to a retained accident management company who help sort out their claim…If the claim needs to be referred to a lawyer then the accident management company will pay us a referral fee.’ A referral fee will typically be in the region of £200 and £1,000 depending on the potential value of the claim. The Telegraph has suggested that in 2010 Admiral Group received over £100m in referral fees!!!
Interestingly, Axa have stated that the reason behind their new refusal to accept referral fees was in order to combat a growing ‘compensation culture’. I say interesting because to me it would seem that it was companies like Axa who were actually fuelling this so-called ‘compensation culture’. By bombarding people with text messages advising them of their potential to make a claim for compensation, and by accepting extortionate fees from some personal injury solicitors for details of people with potential injury claims, for example, is to serve to fuel this supposed ‘compensation culture’. Then to say that insurance premiums are going up because people are making more and more claims for compensation seems a bit cheeky when actually by accepting referral fees is to encourage claims for compensation in the first place.
At The Injury Lawyers we can say with pride that we have never paid a referral fee for an injury claim. It is instead our quality and respected work that has allowed us to successfully represent thousands of people for their injury claims.
If you want honest, independent, and free legal advice give us a call today for a no-obligation chat about your potential claim for compensation.
