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.
By your solicitor paying your insurance company, a claims company, the NHS, a garage, or the police, or anyone else a referral fee, they are leaving themselves with less money to spend on your case. They are buying your claim to make a quick profit with. They will pay anywhere up to £1,000, which leaves them with next to nothing to spend on actually running your claim since we are restricted to fixed fees for the majority of road claims in the region of £1,250 – £1,500!
When it comes to regular contact, medical care, looking after you for your case, returning your calls and correspondence, and fighting tooth and nail for the maximum payout, it cannot be achieved if money is wasted on referral fees. The issues above are largely commonplace in complaints from victims of the referral fee system.
Whilst we were delighted that the Right Honourable Mr Jack Straw had revealed the insurance industries “dirty secret” to the media, and got them to admit that it was the insurers selling claims on to solicitors that was a real factor when it comes to the 30% – 40% rises in insurance prices, we were far than less impressed with his recent remarks in his ten minute notion speech when the former justice secretary made the following remarks about whiplash:
“Often such claims are for whiplash, which is not so much an injury, more a profitable invention of the human imagination—undiagnosable except by third-rate doctors in the pay of the claims management companies or personal injury lawyers”
As I said in my last post – this statement defines stupidity.
We knew it wouldn’t be long before others spoke out against a statement that can only be described metaphorically as the side effects of fishing with dynamite; Premex, a leader in medico legal experts for personal injury claims, has had their say on the “unfair generalisation” of medical experts when Mr Straw stated that whiplash was “undiagnosable except by third-rate doctors in the pay of the claims management companies or personal injury lawyers”.
According to their CEO, Dr Simon Margolis (http://www.premex.com/news/2011/response-to-ten-minute-rule-notion-by-jack-straw-mp—medical-experts-challenge-accusations-.aspx), the comments made in the speech “fail to acknowledge how the modern delivery of expert medical evidence is carried out.” I entirely agree.
Furthermore, Dr Margolis openly invites the opportunity for the experts on the Premex panel to challenge Mr Straw’s insinuation. He goes on to advise those who are not familiar with the inner workings of the personal injury industry that many of the experts involved in claims undertake both Claimant and Defendant work; aside from the fact that their underlying duty is to the court, and an actual examination is carried out.
I thanked Mr Straw in several of my previous articles when it came to highlighting the issue of referral fees. He did his research, drew his conclusions, and passed it on to the media. When it comes to his remarks about whiplash not being a real injury, he is basing his assumptions on what I assume is the common misconception the public generally share that whiplash is a joke of an injury.
I hope Mr Straw takes the invite from Premex, and I would be more than happy for him to accept my invite in my previous article; feel free to come and prod my back and feel what a real whiplash injury is actually like. I can tell you this; it may not be visible to the naked eye, but in its acute phases, you can certainly feel it to the touch.
Whilst I of course, as a whiplash sufferer myself, would never wish the injury on anyone, I would certainly like to speak to Mr Straw in the event he was ever in a car accident and ended up with whiplash. Given recent events, it would be an interesting scenario.
For those of you reading this who have suffered, or are suffering, from whiplash, I assume you are as disgusted as I am with the narrow minded remarks of a man on a mission to kill the “compensation culture” now his party is no longer in power. Whilst I think everyone involved in the industry agrees that steps could be taken to make things more efficient and cut out the money making scammers in the industry who add no value to the claims process, alleging that all whiplash claims are fabricated is a farcical assumption.
For advice on what you can do when you are suffering from whiplash, a recognised and diagnosable injury, please do feel free to give us a call.