Most people falsely believe that the reason our car insurance is rising so rapidly is as a result of personal injury claims for compensation. We’ve been telling people for years that there are deeper, darker secrets in the insurance world that are truly responsible for the huge increases we have seen over the last few years.
We were delighted when former Justice Secretary Mr Jack Straw brought the insurance companies ‘dirty little secret’ to light about referral fees as the real reason why our premiums were constantly on the rise; and even more delighted that the papers were passed through parliament and we are set to see referral fees banned sometime next April. Now we have another factor brought to light – again, something we have been fully aware of for a long, long time.
The Background of Referral Fees
For those of you who are not sure what I’m talking about when it comes to referral fees, here is a quick explanation. For those of you fully aware, feel free to skip to the next header of my blog.
When you have an accident that was not your fault, your details will likely be passed to a solicitor or a claims management company by either your own insurers through Legal Expenses Insurance / Motor Legal Protection, by a garage, breakdown recovery service, accident assist service, or even by the police. Why? Because you, as a person in a non-fault accident, have a claim for compensation that is worth around £1,500.00 to an injury lawyer in claimable fees.
A company that knows you have had a non-fault accident is essentially holding the chips that equate to this £1,500.00, and they can easily cash them in for a fee by giving your details to a solicitor to run your case. The solicitor will pay anywhere in the region of a staggering £1,000.00 to ‘buy’ your information, have your case, win the claim, and recover their fees of around £1,500.00 from the insurer of the driver at fault. This happens to the majority of people through Legal Expenses Insurance when your own insurer tells you that you have the benefit of legal cover, meaning you can make a no cost claim. In actual fact, your own insurer is probably ‘selling’ your information to the highest bidding solicitor who will take your case on.
We have been speaking out against this for years – because insurance companies are profiting from your loss. The solicitors you end up with in the unscrupulous world of backhanders and referral fees have wasted potentially £1,000.00 on buying your case, which leaves them with hardly anything to spend on running your claim and fighting for the highest payout – so yes, you, the victim, face losing out through receiving a poor quality service because your solicitor has wasted most of their budget on buying your case. The Law Society and Bar Council have commented on the restriction of access to justice and limitation of the quality of legal services on offer – and we talk to people who have gone down this route all the time and they always complain of the same problems:
- Solicitors never update them
- Solicitors never call them back
- Solicitors are pushing them to accept what they believe to be a low offer
- Solicitors don’t seem to care
The reason is because they cannot afford to provide you with the service that you deserve. And when the news of this hit the headlines around this time last year, it was confirmed that the referral fee system was a huge contributory factor for rising premiums by insurers pushing people in to making claims, resulting in more payouts, bigger profits for the insurers selling the information, and the innocent drivers being hit in the wallet by hiked up premiums.
The insurers themselves were blamed for the increases in premiums – essentially they brought it on themselves! If your insurer is trying to pass you to a solicitor, know this; what they’re doing is soon to be made illegal. So avoid it all costs – literally.
NOW: The REAL Reason Car Insurance is Rising: Referral Fees and Backhanders!
According to sources from the Times (http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/) and the Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/money/insurance/simon-read-the-real-reason-car-insurance-costs-have-soared-backhanders-7811839.html), the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) have concluded following an investigation that the insurers themselves are, once again, cashing in whilst we are hit with huge premium increases. The findings are now on their way to the Competition Commission where it is hoped that the insurance companies will finally be brought to justice for what they’re doing.
According to sources from the Times: “It has been widely assumed that car insurance premiums have been rising because of the tsunami of personal injury claims. The OFT indicates however that insurers also appear to be colluding with repairers and replacement car hire firms in a merry-go-round of referral fees and higher bills.”
The insurers through referral fees and backhanders are hiking up bills to hit the insurers of the drivers at fault, i.e. their competition, with the highest bills possible. The OFT has confirmed evidence that the insurers of the drivers at fault have little or no control over which companies are used for repairs bills, hire bills, or other companies involved, such as brokers, assistance companies, claims companies, etc, with insurers of the non-fault party “can take advantage of this lack of control as an opportunity to generate revenues through rebates and referral fees and so inflate the costs of insurers of at-fault drivers.”
The report goes on to say “This is an inefficient way for the sector to operate, raising the total costs for providing private motor insurance which drivers end up paying.”
The OFT say that the average bills could be inflated by as much as £560.00, leading to a potential increase to the consumers in the region of £225m per year. They have listed an itinerary of “questionable practices”:
- Car hire organisations paying “referral fees” of up to £400 to get business which then leads to higher daily hire rates
- A system of referral fees and rebates from repairers, paint suppliers and parts suppliers
- A delay in blameless drivers getting their car back meaning inflated bills from having replacement motors for longer than necessary
- Agreements with approved repairers to charge higher labour rates when repairing the vehicle of the not-at-fault driver.
Car insurers appear to have lost sight of what they primarily exist to do – providing competitive insurance for drivers; with the Independent calling it a “cheap trick” to hit the pockets of the insurance company paying out. In essence, the non-fault insurers want the at-fault insurers to pay out as much money as possible to hit them deeper and harder in the pocket. The report goes on to confirm that no insurance company has been named and shamed so far; but that’s likely because all insurers are in on it! But all the while the cost is being passed on to us – the consumer.
So, the truth is out! We, as upstanding personal injury lawyers who are dedicated to getting compensation for the victims of accidents, are happy to see it coming! We have always been against getting involved in the unscrupulous world of backhanders and referral fees, and we have for a long time been speaking out against it.
The accident victims are hit with poor services when their information is shared around for profit, and the market is made to be inefficient with the innocent motorist being hit with increased premiums as insurers hike the costs of claims up; and all the while the insurance companies cash in and blame it on the personal injury lawyers!
Well I say enough is enough! I say the insurers need to finally stop complaining about conducting their business. I mean, they’re always having a dig at lawyers being to blame for increased costs when the whole point of their existence is to compensate non-fault parties in an accident. It’s their job to financially compensate accident victims, and by no means should accident victims be expected to go it alone – we know all too well that insurers can easily take advantage of an accident victim who tries to settle their claim directly with them. Not only that, but our legal fees are capped as it is – we’re not hitting their profits anywhere near as hard as they make out we are.
Once again the insurers dirty little secrets are revealed, as we all learn the truth that it is not the “ambulance chasing lawyers” causing our car premiums to unnaturally inflate, but it is the insurance companies themselves through selling peoples information for profit and driving up the cost of compensation to hit their competitors hard in the pocket.
Let’s put an end to this now! We put our faith in the OFT and Competition Commission to do what should have been done a long time ago – give the insurance companies the dressing down they duly deserve!
