"Free Motor Legal"

ThorOdinson

https://www.freemotorlegal.co.uk/

What is the deal with this? Sounds too good to be true, like it must be some kind of scam.

My guess would be it's similar to the "courtesy" car hire scams where they get you to rent a car at some ridiculous rate, and then try to get the money from the at-fault insurer. Except here they aren't just going to put you in an overpriced rental car, they will inflate the whole claim as much as possible too. You will have to agree to be a witness for them in court.

Is that about the size of it?

WellKnownSid

Well it sounds like ambulance chasing - but without the chasing.  Tell us about your accident before anyone else “our partners will handle it”.

Zero admin cost maintaining a mailing list.

born_again

• Freemotorlegal.co.uk is a subscription accident management and uninsured loss recovery service

https://www.freemotorlegal.co.uk/how-it-works/terms-conditions/

They are a claims management company when you read the full T/C & get referral fee for providing a hire car.

Barge & pole spring to mind.

Aretnap

Discussed on several threads previously. It was formerly run by OnanTheBarbarian, of this parish. He sadly passed away a few years ago.

Without commenting on the business model, for me the biggest red flag would be that the website doesn't seem to have been updated since he died, and implies that he is still running things ("Lee Jones has been in this industry for over 20 years...")

I hope that whoever is in charge now does a better job of managing claims than they do of running websites.

MyRealNameToo

ThorOdinson said:

https://www.freemotorlegal.co.uk/

What is the deal with this? Sounds too good to be true, like it must be some kind of scam.

My guess would be it's similar to the "courtesy" car hire scams where they get you to rent a car at some ridiculous rate, and then try to get the money from the at-fault insurer. Except here they aren't just going to put you in an overpriced rental car, they will inflate the whole claim as much as possible too. You will have to agree to be a witness for them in court.

Is that about the size of it?

Back in my day, which was before the Whiplash Reforms, insurers could have given away Legal Expenses insurance on Motor (but not Home) and still made a profit from it (at least if they were writing it themselves and not selling someone else's LE cover).

They simply pass you on to other parties who do credit hire/repairs, no win no fee solicitors that dont charge a success fee etc all of which you could do yourself and won't give you any protection for small track cases unless you take their credit hire and then it will be very secondary to the car. 

The website however is very out of date seeing as its T&Cs says its regulated by the Claims Management Regulator and that ceased to exist in 2019 however the footer has been updated to say FCA. Their accounts show their balance sheet increased £50k in the last year but they are a micro business (£33 of assets outside of cash) 

Aretnap

MyRealNameToo said: 

The website however is very out of date seeing as its T&Cs says its regulated by the Claims Management Regulator and that ceased to exist in 2019 however the footer has been updated to say FCA. Their accounts show their balance sheet increased £50k in the last year but they are a micro business (£33 of assets outside of cash) 

Also, the registered address on the website is out of date, and has been since the company's ownership changed in December 2021. I'm not convinced that the site has been updated since then.