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Since I actually purchase RTA cases on behalf of a law firm I thought I'd wade in to these waters.

I buy most of my RTA work from CMCs. Consequently I find it incredibly ironic for insurers to be complaining about the cost of claims.

When you have an accident, the first thing you are supposed to do is contact your insurer. The first thing your insurer does in return, is sell your accident.

You read that correctly: they sell you.

In fact, chances are when you tried to ring them you were diverted straight through to their fnol (first notification of loss) people, aka an accident management company or CMC, for a fee, and the CMC sort out your repairs, your credit hire, get you home etc. At the end of that list they will ask you how you are feeling, and if there is the tiniest of symptoms, they will then sell your case on to me.

We do our best here to weed out the crap - and we do get a lot of it. Claims where the accident damage amounts to a number plate falling off. Claims where wing mirrors have been clipped. The bogus and staged are more difficult to identify (say what you like about criminals, but they tend to be professional about it), but we do our best and risk assess what we can.

The other irony is that we're the most regulated bit of the industry, the only ones operating with any transparency, and we're the ones subjected to the scrutiny. CMCs are getting away with murder; medical agencies have a licence to print money (medco has done very little to assist here, merely acted as a gateway for anybody with a small cheque to plug into the established portals and cream off £20 from claims - we know one agency is being run from a students bedroom). Rehab and CBT (it stands for complete bollocks therapy) are being charged at stratospheric rates.