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The Labour Party is not wholly behind its minister Jack Straw’s proposal to ban referral fees it has emerged.
Speaking at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance & Financial Services yesterday John Woodcock, the shadow transport minister, commented: “What troubles me is how do you avoid over-correcting? Clearly there is a broken marketplace but we need to ensure that we retain access to legal advice for people who need it”.
This view was succinctly echoed by Chris Shaw, commercial director of AI Claims who said: “We need more of a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer”.
Mr Shaw added that it would help if there was “uniformity” in how to deal with the issue and consistency in the evidence being used to support a ban, commenting that even the Association of British Insurers members seem to be divided 50:50 on whether this is the right course of action.
On the issue of the Ministry of Justice’s fixed fee for road traffic claims pursued through the portal, Mr Shaw agreed with chairman of the group Jonathan Evans that the existing figure of £1200 was too much.
But he warned against a simplistic halving of the figure, noting that this would suffice in incidents involving two vehicles, but that when multiple vehicles were involved the amount would likely need to be greater than £600, and suggested a multi-tier approach should be instigated.
Original Story: PostOnline
Medico Legal News Source: Claims Standards Council
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