Referral schemes resented

Personal Injury: APIL members reluctant to put money towards attracting clients

Personal injury law firms would much rather deal directly with the public than go through referral schemes to attract new clients, but the majority are reluctant to spend the money to achieve this, according to research released this week.A survey of 110 members of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers by insurer Lawinsure found that 16% used referral schemes, with the Law Society-endorsed Accident Line coming out as the most popular with 39% of these.

However, 93% would prefer not to use the schemes at all, with 60% saying they are poor value for money.

Advertising was seen as a better option by one-third of firms, although slightly more than half of respondents said they spent less than 5,000 on marketing each year.APIL secretary Mark Harvey said the findings on referral schemes did not surprise him.

'There is no guarantee of the quality of work,' he said.The survey also found that 77% of firms think that conditional fee agreements (CFAs) are here to stay in their current format, and the same number predicted that their use will increase.

There was also a well of support for the introduction of US-style contingency fees.Three quarters of those using CFAs handle fewer than 100 cases a year with 7% handling more than 350 cases.Nine out of ten firms now provide insurance for cases, with Abbey Legal Protection - which is behind Accident Line - coming out as the most popular.

One-third of these insure all or nearly all of their cases, but almost one-fifth insure less than 10% of the matters they deal with.Chris Ward, managing director of Abbey Legal, said the fact that firms can pick and choose the cases they insure - and are ultimately only insuring the risky ones - is responsible for the destabilisation of the industry.

Paula Rohan