All Personal injury & clinical negligence articles – Page 59
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NewsNHS claims surge by 66% in just four years
The head of the NHS Litigation Authority has denied that rocketing claims figures indicate increased negligence in the NHS. Catherine Dixon, the authority’s chief executive, spoke after this month’s damning Keogh review into death rates at hospitals across England. The report is expected to prompt a new rash of claims ...
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Opinion
Motor insurance: health checks
I was interested to see AXA’s recent report on whiplash – an issue on which we have submitted evidence to the Transport Select Committee. The insurance industry continually issues figures about how much whiplash claims allegedly add on to motor insurance policies every year. However, no one appears to be ...
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News
CMCs ordered to show they comply with fee ban
More than 140 claims management companies (CMCs) are being asked to prove they have not breached the referral fee ban since April, the government has revealed. The Claims Management Regulation Unit, managed by the Ministry of Justice, has visited more than 450 companies across England and Wales since the ban ...
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Feature
Assessing costs in clinical negligence cases
Clinical negligence practitioners on both the claimant and defendant sides are waiting with bated breath to see how courts will deal with arguments on proportionality.
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News
MoJ proposes online scheme for asbestos victims
Victims of asbestos-related disease are to be offered a process for out-of-court compensation
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News
APIL chief joins call for ban on incentives
The leader of the UK's biggest claimant representative group has said it is a 'mystery' why regulators have opted not to ban inducements for personal injury claims.
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Opinion
Stop this PI lawyer-bashing
I read with sadness the letter from Rob Barley. I work for a small practice which mainly deals with personal injury claims. I have in the past month received at least five calls to my firm’s telephone number asking me if I am sure I have not been injured in ...
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Opinion
Standing up to the insurance industry
The Law Society deserves to be praised for at long last standing up to the insurance industry. There are critics who (justifiably) will say all of this is too little too late, but the campaign is something which is very close to my heart. We launched Review My Claim earlier ...
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Law Report
Reasonable foreseeability
Hide v Steeplechase Co (Cheltenham) Limited and Others (2013) EWCA Civ 545 (Longmore, McFarlane and Davis LJJ)
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Opinion
PI firms not playing by the rules
In the new personal injury claims environment we all have to play by the new rules. The trouble is that there are many firms which are not. I have seen adverts on the internet offering, without qualification, ‘100% compensation’, but when the firm in question is called the offer is ...
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OpinionDefendant firms are turkeys protecting Christmas
This may surprise you, but not all my correspondence is adoring fanmail. Indeed, on some occasions people tell me rather forcefully that I’m wrong, and often in the kind of language that gives our email filter system nightmares. The majority of angry responses come from defendant firms who take issue ...
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News
Defendant lawyers ‘saddened’ by Law Society PI campaign
The Forum of Insurance Lawyers has said it is ‘profoundly saddened’ by a Law Society advertising campaign urging accident victims to seek legal advice. The campaign portrays a beaten face with the caption ‘don’t get mugged’, telling injured people to speak to a solicitor before accepting a third-party capture offer ...
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Opinion
Axa calls for three-day limit on whiplash claims
Whiplash claims should be made within three days of the alleged accident and include evidence of physical injury if they are to succeed, insurance giant Axa said today. The recommendations are part of a wishlist for the government to adopt on whiplash, copying models already in place in France and ...
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News
Claimant solicitors attack insurer’s ‘biased’ whiplash proposals
Claimant solicitors have dismissed a report into whiplash by insurer Axa as ‘highly biased’ and based on inaccurate or outdated statistics. The insurance giant yesterday put pressure on the government to impose new medical and time limits for making low-value RTA claims. The report pointed to countries such as Sweden ...
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News
Direct Line applies to set up law firm through ABS
Britain’s biggest car insurer, Direct Line Group, has applied to the Solicitors Regulation Authority to become an alternative business structure. The insurer wants to create a newly formed and wholly owned law firm, DLG Legal Services, to operate in partnership with existing law firm Parabis. Direct Line Group already provides ...
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News
Portal extension rules published – with just 14 working days to go
The Ministry of Justice has finally published the rules that will frame the long-awaited extension of the online claims portal – just 14 working days before the new arrangements come in to force. The 65th update to the Civil Procedure Rules extends the low-value personal injury scheme for RTAs to ...
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Opinion
Probate pitfalls
The Law Society’s advertising campaign on behalf of personal injury practitioners is to be applauded. But private client practitioners have long had their own battle with corporate providers of probate services, which include most high street banks. The public is frequently misled and overcharged because they do not go to ...
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News
RTA claims plummet following fees cut
New RTA claims fell dramatically in the first month following the cut in solicitors’ fixed fees. Figures collected by Claims Portal Ltd show 53,895 claims notification forms opened during May. That was a fall of 31% from April and down almost 25% in comparison with the same month in 2012. ...
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News
PI firms warned off medical cases
Leading clinical negligence lawyers have warned of the risks arising from growing numbers of personal injury practitioners moving into their sector. Legal consultancy Zebra last week reported a tenfold increase in enquiries about setting up or expanding medical negligence cases since the beginning of the year. The majority of those ...
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News
Delay in switch of CMC complaints
The government is almost certain to miss its target for transferring complaints about claims management companies (CMCs) to the Legal Ombudsman. The Ministry of Justice cannot yet say when the plans – unveiled last August – will come to fruition. The move was scheduled to be completed this year, but ...