'You can make a difference,' APIL chief tells solicitors

NEW PRESIDENT: Allen intent on gaining fairer deal for victims

The new president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) will this week urge his members to declare war on public misconceptions about the profession and destroy the arguments of 'ruthless' insurers in the funding debate.

Patrick Allen - who takes over from Frances McCarthy at APIL's spring conference in London - will tell delegates that his priorities over the next year include getting a fairer deal for victims in asbestos and clinical negligence cases, and campaigning for a new corporate manslaughter bill.

He will also call for a new disaster bureau to replace the plethora of bodies which currently investigate accidents, and an overhaul of the coroners system.

Mr Allen, a partner at north London firm Hodge Jones & Allen, will tell delegates that individual solicitors can make a vast difference in improving justice by fighting for satisfactory levels of compensation, improved access to courts and legal advice, and better safety procedures aimed at preventing accidents.

'You are the lawyers at the coal face who can see where the system is failing,' he will say.

'You have ideas to make it better - come forward and help us change the law for the better.'

He will also urge lawyers not to become disheartened by negative comments aimed at solicitors in the field: 'An attack on lawyers always raises an easy laugh, but those laughing will stop on the day they need a good lawyer to represent them.'

Paula Rohan