10 November 2004
Legal firms that offer ‘no win no fee’ accident claims have one last chance to get their house in order Ministers have warned.
Constitutional Affairs Secretary Lord Falconer said today that the companies face regulation if they fail to take urgent action to improve their service.
Firms are also being warned not to raise expectations falsely through potentially misleading advertising and sales practices. They are also expected to focus on being more upfront about their business.
Lord Falconer said genuine claims should be supported, but sometimes there is not always someone else to blame.
"Genuine accidents do happen. People should not be encouraged to always ‘have a go’ however meritless the claim.
He said the perception of ‘easy money’ creates very real problems.
"People become scared of being sued; organisations avoid taking risks and stop perfectly sensible activities.
"It creates burdens for those handling claims and critically it also undermines genuine claims."
The Government will need to work with everyone interested in the area, he said.
This is just one of the initiatives to stop the development of a ‘compensation culture’, outlined in its response to the Better Regulation Taskforce Report, ‘Better Routes to Redress’.
The Government is also planning to:
- discourage adverts in hospitals that encourage claims against doctors
- improve the system for dealing with genuine claims
- tackle the causes of the underlying problems by reducing accidents in the first place
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