Solicitor wants 25% of my personal injury compensation

Digb

Quentin wrote: »

You need to pay for your advertising elsewhere like all other businesses.

(Your link wouldn't be accepted anyway! MSE has ways to deter such cynical promotion)

Yes, I read the rules. So, when Jackson makes a recommendation and across the board, lawyers refuse to accept it, that isn't cynical? But someone who does follow what they say, decides to test the water on a forum of people who, one would think, might be open minded about a money saving idea...they are "cynical"? I haven't posted a link...I have said I am a solicitor, that it is a business. I haven't asked for any work, I can refer people to someone who can talk them through a service, which has nothing to do with my business, so they know what this is about. The people I am working with get the same reaction. This is not an attempt to get business. I am trying to see what the reaction is to this idea. So far it is pretty disappointing. I suppose the notion that a family lawyer, sitting as a judge or a criminal barrister sitting as an assistant recorder who is bogged down with commercial cases, domestic violence cases, child custody cases, etc. is the person you want to wait for over a year to have decide your case, rather than a private system which costs far less and doesn't duplicate in paper what is already, in most cases these days, already available in electronic form. And, a private system can provide oral hearings. These days people are dealt with in far more serious cases and go to jail in cases where evidence is given over video links, child rape cases...are broken bone cases more serious? Private systems allow for video links and oral hearings with witnesses attending in person. They are flexible, which court proceedings are not.

While personal injury cases are not necessarily the best example of this point, many cases involve defendants who are "friendly". Cases as between insurers, for instance, should never go to court because both sides have a duty to resolve the issues at the least cost and both are are sides are acting on subrogated rights of their insureds, most of whom are now comprehensively insured, have no interest in the outcome, don't want to go to court, don't want to chase around after witnesses. If you think that helping insurers and premium holders avoid paying for all this unnecessary expense in legal fees to lawyers who usually settle on the doorstep of the court after making their fee is cynical, well, maybe we are going to have to agree to disagree.

Must finish now but thanks for your comments. My hope was that someone might be a little less cynical of "my" motives. As you say, I do want to set up a business and I would like to advertise here if I could get this site to take an interest in the product and allow me the opportunity, privately to explain and demonstrate it to them. Then maybe I would be allowed the opportunity of showing someone who cares about consumer rip offs to assess this without having to subject myself to comments about my own integrity.

Quentin

Digb wrote: »

..... If you think that helping insurers and premium holders avoid paying for all this unnecessary expense in legal fees to lawyers who usually settle on the doorstep of the court after making their fee is cynical, well, maybe we are going to have to agree to disagree.......

It is cynical of you to seize on the thread, offer your service to the OP free of charge when your objective is to use MSE for promotion!

BertTheRaccoon

There was (maybe still is) an alternative system of dealing with Motor PI claims in the UK, there was a company called Inter-Resolve. Not sure if they are functioning still.

(Text removed by Forum Team)

Quentin

This thread turning into the self promoter p i lawyer's Facebook!

BertTheRaccoon

Quentin wrote: »

This thread turning into the self promoter p i lawyer's Facebook!

Admit it Quentin, it keeps you out of mischief

:rotfl:

Digb

I'm not going to say any more about this idea. Who knows whether it will ever get off the ground. I actually came here to see if I could get support from the owners of the site, not to promote the business on the forum but there doesn't seem to be any obvious way of contacting them, so I just posted.


If you have an accident on an airline while on holiday and you make a claim against a company which is a member of ABTA, your claim is dealt with through a scheme where you pay no legal fees and an expert, independent adjudicator, would make a determination or mediate a settlement in a matter of weeks. That is without this system which would shorten that.

If you go to a solicitor, he will order a medical report for you and send it to the insurers. You provide details of your loss of employment income. The solicitor might send you to an employment consultant to determine your future loss of income. All that takes time but even at a high hourly billing rate, it comes nowhere near what solicitors charge, just for processing paper, in a society where everything is now stored electronically. Solicitors guide you through a maze of court rules which are designed for a court which still mainly uses paper based systems and puts you in front of a judge, who for all you know, is a former criminal barrister or family lawyer. Over 90% of cases settle. The reason solicitors charge high fees is they tell you it is no win no fee so you are subsidizing the work they do on duff cases where they get nothing. Those cases are rare. They send people away with duff cases and if they think they are going to lose, they settle. All insurance cases can be settled because all cases have a reserve set at the outset so there is always money set a side so there is no real risk to the solicitor anyway.

The CPR, rules of court, now make it necessary for solicitors to consider ADR. The Jackson report specifically, in respect of personal injury, stopped short because Jackson felt there was not enough specialization in PI in the ADR world to deal with the volume of cases. That was in the face of strong representations from ADR representatives allied with former Lord Chief Justice Woolf. The Road Traffic Portal which is being used to facilitate quick settlements through electronic process is failing badly due to lawyers wanting high fees and insurers resenting being pushed into settlements without adequate time, essentially being threatened into settlement. All of which drives up costs.

Some countries no longer have personal injury litigation in motor vehicle claims. Insurers closed their doors in Canada in the 90s because it was unprofitable. The UK is headed that way. Some motor insurers make their profits by selling customer details while others like Direct Line have been up for sale for years.

We all pay insurance premiums and we don't insure our cars so that we can pay £14 billion to lawyers, at least that is not what I want my premiums to pay. It is intended to repair cars and copensate victims of accidents, not send rich lawyers kids to private school. Sorry if coming here and pointing this out makes some people think I am cynical.

Digb

BertTheRaccoon wrote: »

There was (maybe still is) an alternative system of dealing with Motor PI claims in the UK, there was a company called Inter-Resolve. Not sure if they are functioning still.

(Text removed by Forum Team)

Inter Resolve is a claims management company. They claim to be mediators but essentially they are a call centre with people who are unqualified, acting as though they were solicitors. They buy claims from garages, pay them a fee for referrals. Then they contact you and tell you they can get you a settlement, they hire a doctor for you and get you a rental car. Then they negotiate with the insurer.

If they cannot get a settlement for you they sell your case to a solicitor for a fee. The recently had an investment from a venture capital group of £36 million to buy claims. This sort of claims management company is what is being targetted by the government who are now banning referrral fees as they drive up insurance costs. Also these type of claims management companies are not mediators at all, they just put your claim to the insurer and see if they can settle it, taking a fee for themselves. They aren't legally trained people. There are a lot of these outfits out there if that is the way you want to go, but if there is a dispute, you are then referred to lawyers and you are back in the same situation with the costs coming out of your settlement.

Digb

Well, actually, you are wrong that you cannot advertise through MSE. I have now found what I am looking for. MSE is interested in products and there is a specific link for companies which want MSE to help market them. Here is how you go about it from the MSE site:

Have a product to be reviewed or mentioned by MSE?

Companies, ideas and products make it into guides based on price, after intensive editorial research. Any link placement depends solely on a product or service's benefit to our site's users.

If you’ve a MoneySaving deal or offer for consideration, please click the link below.

I'd like to tell you about a discount, deal or campaign. Where do I send it?

So, rather than having criticized me, as a newbie, not even having mentioned a company, and looking to publicize an "idea", and offering a bit of friendly advice, why were you unable to direct me this part of the website? Just being difficult are we??

BertTheRaccoon

BertTheRaccoon wrote: »

There was (maybe still is) an alternative system of dealing with Motor PI claims in the UK, there was a company called Inter-Resolve. Not sure if they are functioning still.

(Text removed by Forum Team)

I wasn't intending to self-promote in this original post, I merely stated my profession in order to show I had experience in the subject matter that was being debated at the time.

For some reason my stating my occupation was deemed to be promotion? :undecided:undecided:undecided

Digb

These claims management companies are highly controversial so just mentioning them without a big caveat could be a problem, I suppose.