Revamped Accident Line fills 'void'

Accident Line - the Law Society- endorsed personal injury service - was officially relaunched this week, and is seeking to mark itself out from other claims management companies dominating the market.

Law Society Vice-President David McIntosh said Accident Line will enable solicitors to do the whole job, unlike other intermediaries who 'treat solicitors like donkeys on leads'.

The new scheme will 'fill a void' which would otherwise be filled by such 'claims farmers', he said.

Chris Ward, the managing director of Abbey Legal Protection, which manages Accident Line as the Society's commercial partner, said that a 'seismic shift' in the legal system over the past two years had left lawyers 'shell-shocked'.

'Accident Line is the opportunity for lawyers to hit back', he said, adding: 'The scheme's arrangements are completely transparent, unlike certain claims managers, who operate simply as fronts for extracting insurers' fees.'

He confirmed that 2.5 million would be spent on an advertising campaign covering the print media, and a television campaign in December.

High-profile claims management company Claims Direct was last week profiled by the BBC 'Watchdog' programme in relation to complaints by clients that they had received too little from compensation awards, after winning cases through the company.

Claims Direct's chief executive Colin Poole said it was 'easy to take a cheap-shot attitude that we're insurance dealers peddling overpriced premiums - just because we're the market leader'.

Mr Poole, a solicitor, said he was confident that Claims Direct offered a product easier for clients to understand than Accident Line.

But he said Accident Line has 'a place in the market' which he believes remains 'very undertapped'.

Meanwhile, at the Law Society's annual conference last week, President Michael Napier called on the Lord Chancellor's Department to act urgently on the recoverability of insurance premiums in conditional fee cases, which settle before proceedings begin; these are currently unrecoverable.

He said: 'I am told there are 800 costs-only hearings pending in Macclesfield.

Something must be done and done quickly.'

Meanwhile, Mr Poole told a session of litigation funding that Claims Direct would be broadening its services beyond personal injury over the next year, but could not reveal into which areas for Stock Exchange reasons.

Jeremy Fleming