Is there some problem with the postal service to claimant lawyers? We only ask because their invitation to sit on the government’s insurance fraud taskforce appears to have been lost in delivery.

The initiative of justice secretary Chris Grayling, the taskforce is meeting throughout the year to find out why people exaggerate or embellish their claims, and what to do about it. It made its initial report earlier this month.

Obiter rather admires this uncharacteristic effort at an evidence-based approach to forming government policy.

But despite the taskforce explicitly stating that it will look at lawyers’ role in any fraudulent activity, no lawyers have been invited to take part.

Instead, much like when the insurance industry was invited to Downing Street on Valentine’s Day 2012 to hammer out the whiplash reform programme, claimant lawyers are forced to sit on the sidelines, like the teenager without a date for the prom.

May we suggest that a good way to discover what lawyers know about fraud is to ask them?

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