Claims Managers: new APIL president accused of 'inflammatory' remarks

The regulation of claims managers could prove a 'substantial danger' for solicitors, the new president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) said last week - as the Claims Standards Council (CSC) accused him of making 'inflammatory' and 'unhelpful' remarks.


Richard Langton, managing partner of Russell Jones & Walker's Birmingham office, said regulation could make claims managers 'seem more respectable than law firms' - but that most would 'not survive the cost and complexity of regulation'.


He added: '[Claims managers] are, and have always been, an unnecessary feature of the legal scene. They exist because people don't know the difference, and they are approachable. They make charges that all too often get paid by clients. Where they add on excessive after-the-event insurance, they are just parasites.'


Mr Langton said APIL's public information campaign would educate people about the benefits of lawyers so that 'the claims cowboys' will be 'driven out of business'.


CSC policy director Andrew Wigmore said: 'The comments are inflammatory and unhelpful as we move into a new era of regulation.


'Many APIL members purchase work from claims management companies (CMCs) and are very happy to do so. It would appear both parties are prepared to work together, and consumers accept this. APIL should be asking why so many members of the general public prefer to contact CMCs rather than their members directly. It is clear the public believe CMCs add value - parasites they are not.'


Meanwhile, Mr Langton told the APIL annual conference that 'hundreds of thousands' of people currently compensated for injury would 'struggle or be denied' if the government raised the small-claims limit for personal injury to £5,000.


Mr Langton also said that the courts must also realise 'how their decisions can cause delay and increase our workload'. Referring to the Court of Appeal's decision in Sowerby v Charlton [2005] EWCA Civ 1610, he said: 'The Court of Appeal has taken leave of its senses if it thinks permitting insurers to withdraw open admissions of liability helps anyone... [It] has gratuitously encouraged a "gloves off" return to adversarial litigation.'


Martin Bare, a partner at Leeds firm Morrish & Co, was named APIL's vice-president.