Road Traffic Advice Bureau - Friend or Foe?

straighttalker

Babbawah wrote: »

Because that's the car that they had an RTC with . . . . duh !

Ah right then.

dacouch

Aretnap wrote: »

Working on behalf of the Law Society? The Law Society is a professional body which represents solicitors. I won't claim to know about all the aspects of their work, but I'm fairly sure that they don't hire people to cold call accident victims.

As a general rule I'd also be suspicious of any company whose name seems to imply that they enjoy greater official status/authority than they actually do, such as "The Road Traffic Advice Bureau".

Indeed they even specifically ban cold calling, so the chances of them representing them are zero and I would be surprised if they are even regulated...

""Cold calling"

30.
Rule 7.03(1) prohibits you from making unsolicited approaches, either in person or by telephone, to a "member of the public". This is intended to protect the public from the intrusiveness and pressure of unsolicited telephone calls and approaches in person. This rule, therefore, bans what is often termed "cold calling" and prohibits, for example, knocking on doors, approaching people newly arrived at ports of entry, approaching someone in the street, in a hospital or at the scene of an accident, or handing out leaflets in the street. The rule also prohibits approaching a member of the public (either in person, e.g. in the street or by telephone) to conduct a survey which involves the collection of contact details of potential clients, or otherwise promotes your firm's practice.

A combination of 7.03, 7.05 (Responsibility for publicity) and 9.02 (Financial arrangements with introducers) means that you must not have a financial arrangement with an introducer in respect of business which has been obtained (either by that introducer or through an intermediary) by way of unsolicited face-to-face or telephone "cold calling".

This means that, if a member of the public has indicated in a general consumer survey that they may have a claim, you cannot contact them in person or by telephone unless:

(a)
they have explicitly agreed to be contacted about making a claim; and

(b)
their response to the questionnaire was not obtained as a result of an unsolicited approach, in person or by telephone, by your firm, or by any party authorised by your firm, or by any other party if your firm has a financial arrangement with the introducer."

http://www.sra.org.uk/documents/code/rule-7-publicity.pdf

dacouch

Please give this company the swerve, the person you spoke to is calling from a call centre and is on a commission so will tell you anything (Whether truthful or not) to get you to sign up.

If you use your Insurers law firm which I assume is part of your legal protection you are likely to have zero deductions from your compensation. If you use the cold callers company you're likely to have 25% deducted from your injury compensation.

If an Insurer is a solicitors in house legal company, if there is any conflict of interest they have to act in your interests.

Please please avoid the Road Traffic Advice Bureau.

The lack of a website should be a massive giveaway of the true nature of this company

AdrianC

Yep, "working on behalf of the Law Society" would have set big flashy red lights off here, too. Scumsuckingpondlife, for definite.

Should be a simple-enough one, but given that there's a stack of insurers involved, I'd be going through my own insurer. Let them sort it out between everybody else.

If you're genuinely injured, make a claim. If you're not...

bod1467

straighttalker wrote: »

Why would the claim be against the car behind the OP?

It isn't. It's against the car behind the car behind the OP. (Car 1 hits car 2, car 2 hits OP; car 1 is to blame because of the police report).

straighttalker

I get that but it seems that a few others on here don't.

Ruby_Lewis

Thank you everyone for your quick and helpful responses.

Interestingly I have been called by another organisation called Trojan, stating they also work on behalf of the Law Society and are linked with the Motor Insurance Bureau.

They tried to get me to agree to all sorts on the phone (the definition of Cold Calling sprung to mind) and kept saying that if I didn't get a hire car tomorrow, I could be in serious danger!

When I said to them that they were the second company that spoke to me and in light of this and also feeling quite vulnerable, I wanted to speak to my partner before agreeing to anything, they just said "okay call us on 0333 358 3305" and practically hung up on me.

Dear oh dear.

Thank you again everyone

Quentin

Also now beware any pm you get from any ambulance chasers here who get in touch with you!

Hoof_Hearted

I would be advised by your insurers. You may not need to claim for injury if it clears up in a few days but if you do, I would avoid these aggressive ambulance chasers.