When the Sea Empress oil tanker ran aground off Milford Haven earlier this year, cameramen and news reporters were not the only ones to descend on Pembrokeshire's oil-stained coastline.A team of claims assessors arrived and persuaded the majority of Welsh fishermen affected by the disaster to sign compensation agreements giving the assessors a slice of any damages.'They cornered the market from the word go,' Tenby solicitor Paul Cowper said.

'Within a week they held a presentation for fishermen at a hotel in Milford Haven and they were all signed up before any of the local solicitors could get a look in.'Mr Cowper, managing partner of Lowless & Lowless, attended the first part of the meeting, but was asked to leave when it went into 'closed session'.

He explained that, since then, only a handful of fishermen have gone to solicitors while a few others have decided to act for themselves.Accountant Malcolm Stewart, a claims manager at Managers and Processors of Claims (MPC), confirmed that his firm acts for the vast majority of Welsh fishermen and food processors, who are pressing their claims for compensation through the Sea Empress Claimants Association.Mr Stewart said each member of the association had made his own decision to sign agreements with MPC, which gave the firm a share of 10% (plus VAT) of any damages recovered.He suggested that solicitors had been given a chance to present themselves to the fishermen, but MPC's experience in dealing with claims arising from the Braer disaster in the Shetland Islands gave his firm the upper hand.He described MPC, based in Old Bond Street, as a 'multi-disciplinary practice', bringing together accountants, surveyors and legal representatives, but not solicitors.

The head of MPC's legal department has a law degree.The aftermath of the Sea Empress disaster shows that non-legally qualified claims assessors are proving increasingly successful in penetrating a market once dominated by solicitors.Derby solicitor Malcolm Pattullo said that one of his firm's longstanding clients was woken up one Saturday by a man waving a clipboard.'He had details of an accident in which my client had suffered serious injuries,' Mr Patullo said.Mr Pattullo said the man was from another company of claims assessors, which, had his client signed an agreement, would have taken a slice of the damages if the case had been settled.The client was asked whether he had a job and who owned his pr operty.Mr Patullo said: 'He felt the only way to get the rid of the representative was by agreeing to a meeting.'The meeting never took place as Mr Pattullo's client deliberately avoided turning up, and later went to his solicitors, Bemrose & Ling, to let them know what had happened.'He certainly does not wish the company to have anything to do with him.

Their initial visit was unannounced and unwelcome and he is outraged that he should be treated in this way.'The Law Society's court business team monitors the activities of people undertaking legal work without qualifications.

'We think these people pose a great danger to the public,' said the head of court business, Diane Burleigh.The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) is to bring out a leaflet next month to increase public awareness of how to obtain compensation for injuries, including details of conditional fees.APIL director Denise Kitchener said the leaflet would also stress the importance of going to a 'qualified solicitor rather than an unqualified claims assessor'.APIL plans to distribute 10,000 copies through citizens advice bureaux, doctors surgeries and libraries.APIL is also discussing a voluntary code of practice for its members.

Last month, in his outgoing speech as APIL president, Michael Napier said a voluntary code might be necessary to help prevent 'complex brokering schemes' by which solicitors accepted work from claims assessors.Mr Napier considered that some of the schemes would be contrary even to the code of conduct of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, where personal injury lawyers are known to be more aggressive.'In the longer term I fear that the cut-price conveyancers of yesterday will be overtaken by quick-fix under-settlers of personal injury claims tomorrow,' he said.Meanwhile, in Wales, Mr Cowper has had to accept the claims assessors' dominant role in acting for the fishermen.

Indeed, he has been forced to concentrate on other businesses hit by the oil spill such as hoteliers, restaurants, caravan sites and holiday cottages.As a response to the influx of claims assessors, and as a way of controlling rivalry among solicitors' firms, the Sea Empress Solicitors Group was set up in March.Mr Cowper's colleague, Martin Hopwood, who works at the firm's Pembroke office, said they both had 'stacks of work' from businesses affected by the oil spill.

He pointed out that the outcome of compensation claims would depend heavily on the strength of the summer tourist season.As far as the claims assessors were concerned, he said: 'We were criticised for being too quick off the mark, but MPC was there in a matter of days.'Mr Cowper added: 'There has to be a question mark over the quality of advice given by people who are not qualified lawyers.'