Personal injury marketing networks that are run by law firms face regulation by the government if they do not come under the remit of the Law Society, the Lord Chancellor warned this week.

Speaking in Brighton, Lord Falconer said the government was now fed up with complaints about claims farmers and was determined to bring in reforms to regulate them through the forthcoming Compensation Bill.


'If claims marketing companies are not regulated by the Law Society, then they will fall under the Compensation Bill,' he said. This will apply to organisations owned by solicitors but not in themselves regulated by the Law Society.


Lord Falconer said that the Bill would be pushed through before the Clementi reforms. 'The bad claims management companies are behaving so badly we cannot wait,' he explained.


Andrew Twambley, partner at Manchester firm Amelans, which runs Injury Lawyers 4U, agreed that the government must regulate the industry as a whole. He added: 'We have nothing to fear from the Bill, and our clients have everything to gain.'