Could this be the end of the claims farmer?

If you’re as tired as I am of seeing the ‘ambulance chasing’ advertisements every night cluttering up the television, or listening to them on the radio then you will be pleased to discover what can be described as a ‘gathering storm’ against the continuation of paying referral fees for personal injury and medical negligence claims.

Providing a valuable service for the genuine victims of personal injury and medical negligence is to be applauded but it cannot be right that claims farmers continue to profit from injury or death.

In an article written for The Times, Former justice secretary and Lord Chancellor Jack Straw called for the banning of referral fees following the recommendations of Lord Justice Jackson. Mr Straw is angry at the high pressure tactics of legal firms providing personal injury services and said that “the garages, the recovery firms – even the police are selling on this information.”

Paul Nuttall, MEP for the North West has called for an inquiry into the alleged practice of hospitals leaking patient data to ‘no win no fee’ firms saying if true it was “an outrage”.

Speaking on behalf of the government Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly said that the referral fee system gives people a ‘perverse incentive’ to make unjustified claims, and that the government will look at ways to improve procedures.

Simon Oates of gocompensate.com commented to say that there is already a credible alternative to referral fees, a model created by gocompensate.com

“We could see that referral fees were outdated, created stigma on what should be considered as a positive service and were no longer a viable option to maintain trust and credibility with the consumer.”

The gocompensate.com model was launched in January 2011 promoting accredited solicitors on a local basis thereby enabling potential claimants access to the very best solicitor in their region. The service campaigns to ‘keep claims local’.

The removal of referral fees will not reduce the number of accident victims, it may not even reduce the amount of claims but it will introduce trust, honesty and integrity to the services offered by genuine compensation service providers.

gocompensate.com has written to the government and to Jack Straw making them aware of the credible alternative to referral fees.