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Government plans for the future of personal injury claims could lead to unqualified marketing men handling victims with complex cases.
“Proposed reforms to the way people can fund legal cases plus a ban on referral fees is an ominous formula which could lead to marketing men at claims management companies (CMCs) actually running personal injury cases,” said David Bott, president of not-for-profit campaign group APIL (Association of Personal Injury Lawyers).
“The Government is playing a very dangerous game with the future well-being of injured people”.
“If proposals going through Parliament come into force, new options for funding legal cases will be available and will allow inexperienced and unqualified people to start running cases until the point they go to court.
“Claims management companies are very good at advertising legal services, but they’re not lawyers. These businesses won’t be making any money from referral fees after they are banned, so will need to do something else to survive. Changes in the current Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill will open the door for them to start handling cases themselves,” explained David.
His comments come after a Legal Services Board consultation on providers of legal services. In its response, APIL has called for personal injury to be a ‘reserved activity’, meaning that only properly regulated and qualified professionals would be allowed to do that type of work.
“Your gas engineer is properly regulated and so should be business dealing with your personal injury claim,” said David.
“A claims management company would need to settle a case to recover the costs and stay in business. The case would have to be taken over by a solicitor when it gets as far as court, so they will want to settle before it gets that far. This could mean cases are undersettled and injured people don’t receive all the damages they need for their future care,” said David.
“Most injured people have never used the legal system before. They need to have faith that the person representing them has the right level of expertise and experience to deliver the care and compensation they need to put their lives back on track”.
Medico Legal News Source: APIL
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