Telecoms giant seeks to become an ABS
Telecoms giant BT is planning a major incursion into the legal services market after applying to become an alternative business structure, the Gazette can reveal.
BT Claims, a wholly owned subsidiary, applied last week to the Solicitors Regulation Authority for a licence to become an ABS. The nationwide claims management service currently deals largely with legal issues relating to the UK fleet of BT vehicles. But it is understood talks have already begun to expand the client base for other corporations with similar backgrounds that have large vehicle fleets.
If it gets approval, BT will be one of the biggest new entrants to the legal sector following the liberalisation of the market through the full implementation of the Legal Services Act. A spokesman for BT Claims said: ‘The initial focus will be on handling motor claims and litigation, which may be transferable to other sectors. It is about getting claims settled quickly and for the right price rather than stringing things out.’ He would not divulge any further details at this stage.
The current legal team, headed by long-serving in-house solicitor Miles Jobling, has 20 members of staff, most of whom are solicitors. They work from a base in Sheffield, where there is capacity for a significant increase in staff numbers depending on demand.
The BT Claims company was incorporated in 2008 and remained dormant until it commenced trading on 1 May 2010. Figures for the first 10 months showed pre-tax losses of £69,000, reflecting BT’s low-key move into the sector. That involvement has since increased. BT Claims now says it provides a complete, nationwide motor claims management service to over 35,000 corporate fleet vehicles. It handles around 4,000 at-fault accident damage and personal injury claims annually with an average liability value exceeding £5m, and around 3,000 non-fault loss recovery claims with an annual recovered value of over £2.5m.
On its website, BT Claims promotes the efficacy of its third-party capture programme, stating: ‘Early capture of the third party in client at-fault claims can result in a substantial saving on the overall claim cost to the client.
‘We have developed a service to supplement our motor claims capability that is aimed at capturing the third party at the earliest possible point and then managing all aspects of the claim against the client.’
- Personal injury firms will become takeover targets as claims managers and brokers prepare for the referral fee ban, according to a report published this week by Deloitte.
Comments
ABSs and the compensation culture
But have they been invited to the PM's summit?
BT Claims
Brilliant. BT Claims. Love the idea of BT advertising no win no fee claims on its vans, cold calling people to offer the claims service-just as they do with their phone services.
Can't wait for Tory MPs to start criticising BT for helping add to the Compensation Culture.
Great fun!
defence side
From what I can see from their website the BT Claims group is trying to corner the defence side for the insurers and corporates, not the retail consumer claims side.
They say they use better IT (which is believable) and have better data sets on the population that reduces fraudulent claims (although this is in no way an exclusive thing).
Yet another highly organised player entering the claims litigation market - there's going to be a bloodbath among those lawyers that can't compete.
‘Early capture of the third
‘Early capture of the third party in client at-fault claims can result in a substantial saving on the overall claim cost to the client"
That's heartening to know. i.e: If we call up the injured party sharpish - perhaps within hours of the accident we caused - and offer them a bit of cash before they've have a chance to see a doctor or realise the longer term implications of their injury, we can dupe them in to settling at for a pitiful sum.
Not that they put profit before people or anything...
BT Legal Services
Ha ha - this is funny. BT can't organise a new phone line after having 8 weeks notice. Who on earth would trust them to run a claim?
Third party capture
I'm rather concerned about the comments about early third party capture to save the client money. Who is the client here? Is it the insurer? If so, how can BT act for the insurer, and then "capture" the claimant to get the claim settled cheaply? This is a dodgy enough activity when conducted by the insurance companies directly. It cannot be justifed by people who are supposed to have the same professional standards as solicitors.
The SRA is currently struggling to perform its core function of issuing practising certificates. I'd like to think that it is up to dealing with ABS applications from organisations whose business model is a far cry from professional standards rightly demanded of solicitors.
Nothing new
This is nothing new regarding capture. There is more sophisticated outfits out there though. InterRisk Solutions is one that's been in the space for a few years and our company uses them. Then their is also all the TPA's and Loss Adjusters out there doing caring degrees of capture. BT though? Dial 1 for whiplash, 2 for Back, 3 for Ankle.....All our lines are busy you are 48th in the que!
Nothing New
I cannot understand why third party capture is seen as a good thing. Surely this is the main reason for the increase in RTA claims made over recent years. I expect that a lot of the people who are offered money within hours of the accident would probably not have pursued a claim otherwise.
It seems like perverse logic to encourage people to claim and then bemoan the rise in claims and the number of claims made and settled without proper medical evidence of injury.
Exactly - it's a shame the
Exactly - it's a shame the MP's / press / public don't, or won't, recognise this.
Big firms + big reputations = increased chance of bad publicity?
An entrant of such huge capacity is likely to cause alarm, however, this can also be a hindrance. The crucial statement from the BT spokesperson was -
‘The initial focus will be on handling motor claims and litigation, which may be transferable to other sectors. It is about getting claims settled quickly and for the right price rather than stringing things out.’
Realistically, they can only capitalise on specific sectors where the sheer volume of work and the nature of the enquiry might allow for the end user to have a better experience. However, large firms carry large reputations. A smaller firm can perhaps get away with disgruntled customers. The potential for complaints due to poor service is far greater for the likes of BT than the local firm just down the road from me. They are simply more visible and so are their flaws.
I wonder if the legal work
I wonder if the legal work will be outsourced to India?
BT - Anyone using a non-solicitor is 'calling' for trouble
Well it is true.
Good Luck
We asked BT to move our phone line and broadband to a new address. They kept writing to theold address with bills and enquiries, even though the service we requested was a 'business move.'
The phone line was pencilled to be put in on aparticular date but they forgot to arrange the broadband line to be put in altogether. After a complaint, they told us that they would send an engineer within a couple of weeks. Luckily the broadband chap ended up turning up on the same day as the telephone chap. But BT did not know this and would nto believe us when we told them they had already been to fit our broadband line.
After 6 months of use of the broadband line, it was cut off one day - no explanation. Despite taking money off us every quarter, they alleged we had not paid a bill and so our broadband was cut off. It transpired that our account was actually up to date andf that they had (somehow) raised a bill for a different line at our old address and they conceded they had never sent the invoice to us in any event so we did not even have the opportunit of querying it.
Then came the bombshell that our broadband line had been 'disconnected fully' ie the broadband telehpne number we had was no longer allocated to us and had in fact been sht down 6 months ago (even though we still got our broadband service!) and so that we would need to get a new number and IP address.......which could take 2 weeks.... without any email, internet, etc
After querying it further it turns out that was rubbish and that once we had paid 'the bill that never was' they simply turned it back on.
Then they bombarded us with calls asking us if the 'service was of the required standard.' Hopefully entering into the legal this question will never be asked as, certainly in advocacy, I was always taught never to ask a question if you did not know that the answer would be one positive to your case.
So good luck BT. Hope you have got a good precedent for Applications for Relief on Sanctions....
Don't Panic
Well "The Lawyer" is reporting that BT Claims was set up to deal with litigation arising from the BT vehicle fleet and there are no significant plans to expand from that model and no plans to offer consumer services. All the figures quoted above are related to BT Fleet vehicles. Most likely they will offer fleet management and capture claims in that way, possibly offering white-labeling to others.
By the way, simply reproducing Companies House information is not journalism.