The Blackwell Report on claims assessors concluded that 'the Law Society should reconsider its practice rule barring payment for referrals, in the light of the activities in the personal injury market of claims management companies and their panel solicitors .

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the public interest might well benefit from a system that encouraged non-qualified persons to refer cases to qualified persons'.The regulation referred to is practice rule 9 which, although headed 'claims assessors', would appear to apply to any arrangement within its description, whether or not with a claims assessor.The past 12 months have seen a complete change in the way injury victims find a solicitor.

No more queueing at the Citizen's Advice Bureau to be handed a list of three names of local solicitors; no more telephoning the firms concerned at least twice to arrange an appointment in two weeks' time; no more waiting around in the Legal Aid Board's reception area to appeal the refusal of a legal aid certificate.Now all the accident victim has to do is turn down the volume on the television, dial the freephone number, speak to the friendly person at the other end and pretty soon someone will arrive, sign him up, tell him it won't cost a penny, that probably he will never have to meet a solicitor, and with any luck he will receive his compensation within a year.Yes, the claims farmers have arrived in force, and is it any wonder? Here is a product with an unlimited shelf life, that is marketed through television and point-of-sale advertising.At present, advertising is aimed at the victims.

But can it be too long before publications aimed at the legal profession contain advertisements which emulate those that appear regularly in Trial, the journal of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.

As already happens in the US, they will be urging lawyers to prefer their case referrals to those offered by their competitors with such winning slogans as 'More profits from cases cases cases!'Where does all this leave the accident victim and the solicitor, bearing in mind the need of the former to retain freedom of choice and of the latter to be able to give frank and impartial advice? There is far more to being a good claimant personal injury solicitor than merely processing claims.

Will the needs of the particular victim be matched with the skills of the particular solicitor?It is likely that - unless the victim has specialised knowledge of PI solicitors (in which case he can, of course, select as he chooses) - a solicitor on a claims farmers' panel will be at least as good as any referral from a more traditional source, for the simple reason that claims farmers, like solicitors, are in competition and fear adverse publicity as a result of 'bad' settlements.As for lawyers, they will want to do business with claims farmers whose schemes are transparent, fair, reasonable and above all who do not restrict the solicitor or client in any way.

This will allow solicitors to deploy their specialist skills to the full.

Cases should be funded by conditional fee agreements with success fees payable by the loser and, of course, no deductions from the clients damages.Payments by solicitors to claims farmers are currently appropriated to areas such as administration and training, thus overcoming the rule 9 problem.

But is it not time that the playing field was levelled and solicitors were permitted to deal with commercial realities, to buy claims as they wish, thus allowing them to plan caseloads, recruitment and technology investment and reduce their advertising costs, while helping accident victims to obtain the compensation to which they are entitled.