Richard Langton, Association of Personal Injury Lawyers
Langton was keen to impress upon delegates the importance of remembering the rights of the claimant.
He said: "While only 30% of claimants follow claims due to the legal costs, you can't look at costs in isolation." He added: "There is no commercial incentive to run frivolous claims."
Langton also said: "The industry needs to change its perceptions."
He emphasised the importance of early notification of claims, early admissions of liability and common items of loss in speeding up the time claims take to process through the system.
He added: "Apil welcomes the Compensation Bill. We need to change public perception, and regulation will play a key part in that.
"The whole industry has been working in the last six months on a number of initiatives, trying to look at why the current claims process is slow and where duplication exists."
Langton admitted: "We need to work out ways where we can admit liability more quickly."
He also predicted that in the future there will be increasingly less opportunity for non-specialist personal injury lawyers to practice personal injury.
