Compensation: most insurance claims are not 'try-ons', says new president Allan Gore QC

The new president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) hit out at insurers for obstructing the claims-handling process last week.


In his inaugural speech, Allan Gore QC criticised insurers for refusing to admit liability early on and failing to embrace rehabilitation.


He told delegates at APIL's annual conference in Newport: 'Insurers and their lawyers have got to stop thinking that every claim is a "try-on" - the overwhelming majority are not, which is why compensation is paid in an overwhelming majority of cases.'


Mr Gore added: 'Insurers must embrace early and effective rehabilitation by early and effective interim payments. How can it possibly be justified to refuse to do so because liability has not been dealt with by them, when they also know that in the final result compensation is paid in virtually all cases that are brought?'


He said that according to APIL research, insurers only admitted liability in 37% of cases under £5,000 which were won by APIL members. He went on: 'Our members are also reporting an increasing proportion of those admissions that are made being withdrawn [by insurers], despite that being in breach of the protocol. Withdrawal of this trend would go a long way to reducing the frictional costs that the insurers complain of.'


Mr Gore said APIL was in negotiations with the insurance industry to develop a code of practice for multitrack claims worth more than £15,000 as well as smaller claims.


Colin Ettinger, immediate past president, said he believed insurers were close to accepting that their own lawyers could be cut out of the claims investigation process for smaller claims.


He said: 'I think there has been a change in heart. Their complaint is about the double investigation of claims by both defendant lawyers and claimant lawyers. So long as the appropriate checks are in place, I think it will be the claimant's lawyer who does the investigation. Insurers recognise that a claim can only reach a settlement by having the claimant represented.'