PI firms in marketing pact

INJURY LAWYERS 4U: Amelans creates consortium to take on claim management companies

A host of top personal injury firms mainly from the north-west have joined forces to form a 26-strong marketing consortium - the most ambitious venture of its kind so far - in a bid to bring in work and improve their public image.

Injury Lawyers 4U, the brainchild of renowned Manchester-based Amelans, was created as a limited non-profit making company after the firm realised several months ago that claims management companies were on their way out.

The first step will be to embark on a 12-month television campaign; the consortium filmed its first advertisement last week.

Clients will be invited to contact a call centre, which will refer them on to member solicitors, who will do their own claims vetting.

Firms will gain clients according to the share of money they put into the consortium's budget, described by Amelans as 'huge'.

The consortium will then take a step back to allow firms to handle cases in their own way.

Other firms involved include major Manchester practices such as Pannone & Partners, Donns, and Linder Myers, London and Manchester firm Leigh Day & Co, as well as Liverpool firms Irvings and Silverbeck Rymer, Easthams in Blackpool, Leigh-based Stephensons, and Howe & Co in west London.

The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers has called on firms to embrace networking to bring business in and boost the profession's reputation after similar groups formed in Kent, Blackpool and Wiltshire (see [2002] Gazette, 14 November, 5).

Amelans partner Andrew Twambley agreed that the image of personal injury firms had taken a battering owing to the high profile of claims management companies, and said Injury Lawyers 4U would operate according to the company motto 'client protection rather than desperate solicitor protection'.

He argued: 'It is time for solicitors and other major players to take back what they have lost over the last few years.'

Meanwhile, after-the-event insurance provider Litigation Protection has launched its own personal injury marketing initiative, LawSure Direct, which will eventually be rolled out to cover commercial litigation.

The scheme will bring in work for a panel of accredited firms through various marketing initiatives including a national newspaper campaign.

Panel firms will use Litigation Protection's own insurance products.

Paula Rohan