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Jack Straw’s bid to ban referral fees and postcode-based risk pricing has cleared its first Parliamentary hurdle.
The ex-justice secretary’s Motor Insurance Regulation ten minute rule bill was passed without a vote in the House of Commons. It will now receive its second reading on Friday, January 20th.
Summing up his presentation of the bill, Straw said: “The changes in my bill would make a significant difference for Britain’s hard-pressed motorists. The insurance companies would have to start stabilising their premiums and, as their costs came down, would have to reduce their premiums.”
The bill also includes provisions to slash the fixed fees paid to solicitors in personal injury cases and shift the burden onto claimants to prove that they have suffered whiplash injuries.
Association of Personal Injury Lawyers chief executive Deborah Evans slammed Straw’s bid to halve personal injury solicitors’ fixed fees. She said: “Jack Straw is deluded if he thinks a lawyer could possibly give advice to an injured person for the price of £100. In all cases the solicitor needs to talk to the client to understand the symptoms, and the impact of the injury on the client’s life, as well as obtaining a medical report. These were the factors taken into account when fixed costs for road traffic accidents were agreed with the insurance industry only last year.”
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Medico-Legal News Source: Insurance Times
