Firms bid to recover PI claims market

By Jeremy Fleming and Neil RoseA lawyers collective aiming to challenge claims management companies has been launched in the same week that a firm of solicitors announced it is preparing to bring legal action against Claims Direct over how much money it returns to accident victims.The moves come in the wake of the revelation that Accident Line the Law Society-backed referral service has seen income fall by 30%.The lawyers collective, advertising under the brand TalkLegal, has been set up by lawyers from Birkenhead firm Roberts Moore Nicholas Jones.

More than 60 firms have already signed up.The firms will pay 3,000 to join and then 1,500 a month for a minimum of six months to cover advertising costs.

A call centre will allot cases to member firms on a cab-rank basis and there will be no claims handler filtering calls.More than 200 advertisements will go out this month in the Granada and Border TV areas, starting this week with slots in News at Ten.

Sky presenter Lucy Lowe has been retained for marketing.TalkLegal chief executive David Pontin said: The attraction to the public is that they will be dealing directly with lawyers; that should be sufficient to differentiate us from the negative images of certain claims management companies.

The directors hope TalkLegal will soon go national.John Barstow, partner at Manchester firm Tranters, said he is planning legal action for two accident victims who brought claims under Claims Direct contracts.

He plans to issue proceedings this month against Claims Direct and two law firms: Ison Harrison & Co of Leeds and Shrewsbury firm Scott Lister.Mr Barstow says his clients were led to believe they would receive everything back on winning their claims, including their 1,312 premiums which were not returned.He claims his clients rights were cynically disregarded in an attempt to make a profit for Claims Direct.A spokesman for Claims Direct said: We share the disappointment that claims insurers are refusing to pay premiums, and we are trying to resolve the position quickly, so that premiums can be recovered as soon as possible as intended by legislation and the government.He said there was a cooling-off period before clients signed Claims Directs forms, which stipulate that no absolute guarantee can be given as to the recoverability of premium.

Complaints against franchisees should be pursued through the process run by Lloyds, he added.No one was available for comment at Scott Lister.

A spokesman for Ison Harrison said that it was inappropriate to comment before a claim has been issued.Law Society chief executive Janet Paraskevas report to the Societys council last week said the fall in the market for after-the-event insurance attributed to the poor reputation of Claims Direct may lead to a 30% fall in Accident Lines income.Chris Ward of Abbey Legal, which runs Accident Line, said enquiries were up since the service was relaunched in September 2000 but the conversion rate into cases was significantly down.

He attributed this to competition and a greater focus on whether to refer cases.