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It is laughable that people suggest that innocent motorists should be engaged in this process. People don't care about pretty much anything that doesn't directly affect them. Solicitors are only ever seen as a necessary evil when it comes to some part of life - moving home, death, legal disputes and so on - so why would people care of they are not affected by something that they may or may not be affected by in the future?

Saying it's just about the fees is too simplistic. Of course that is a huge part of it - solicitor firms are *gasp* businesses and with legal fees they cease to exist. It seems that solicitors earning a crust is a bad thing but it is ok for everyone else to do well. I wonder if insurers would accept a no claim no premium offer for car insurance?

The other part is the access to justice stuff and having worked on both sides I just cannot see access to justice happening if you take solicitors out of the equation. Or rather, I cannot see claimants getting what they should get, if anything.

And blaming "the PI industry" for creating its own problems? the whole "problem" has come about slowly and insidiously via reform upon reform upon reform going back to CFAs and ATE. Don't forget that various stakeholders have pushed these reforms and the ones with the ear of government have been those that have the most money. As always it stinks that I get tarred with the same brush as the dodgy firms.

Does the PI sector have problems? Of course it does. Fraud, credit hire, CMCs generally (there are some good ones out there), dodgy ads and so on. How big is the problem? No idea because we never get any evidence. It is all very well saying "I deal with dodgy cases all day long" but maybe that's because it is your job and you don't see the good ones, or you're working from a flawed matrix.

As in crime - look for who benefits or simply follow the money to see what the purpose is behind this. Upping the small claims limit to £5,000 (£5k is a fortune even to me) will get rid of an estimated 95% of claims from the fast track and recoverable costs. Nobody is saying the process will be easier, or insurers will have to employ less staff or anything else. In fact some costs will be shifted to the courts. Ultimately the goal is to remove 95% of costs recovery and the only beneficiary will be insurers.

I reckon pre-1999 my average RTA costs were about £1,500. That was doing the job properly, reviewing records, providing proper client care and so on. 18 years later you get £500 unless you want to strip out some damages. IT has helped but now the job is very much on a shoestring. Yet despite this wholesale reduction in costs they still want the fast track limit increased so much.

/rant