The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) has criticised comments about ‘ambulance-chasing’ lawyers, reportedly made by Justice Secretary Jack Straw.

Denise Kitchener, APIL chief executive, accused Straw of taking ‘easy potshots’ at personal injury lawyers in an interview published in the Daily Mail.

‘It’s already extremely difficult for injured people to claim compensation for their injuries and it’s ironic in the extreme that [Straw] would want to make it even more difficult by making them fight harder for what is rightfully theirs,’ she said.

‘The reference to "ambulance-chasing lawyers" is an easy soundbite but is completely at odds with repeated government pronouncements, supported by statistics, that the so-called compensation culture does not exist.’

The newspaper reported Straw as saying: ‘I have given instructions in the services I control to be much tougher on compensation claims, such as for injuries at work.’