“Asking a lawyer to talk for two or three minutes is a bit like asking an elephant to sit on you gently,” said Martin Bare, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL).
He then highlighted his open views on claims management companies: “It is good to see claims management companies regulated. Claims management companies add no value to the system and are not needed, and, as Lord Faulkner told the APIL conference, ‘they will drag your name, and ours, through the mud’.”
On APIL’s priorities he said: “The rights of the individual must never be hampered by costs issues. The government cannot skip from ‘we must do something’ to ‘this is something, therefore we must do this’.
“One of APIL’s priorities is informing injured victims of their rights and responsibilities, but also of the rights and responsibilities of others, including the insurers. There is an inherent imbalance and conflict of interest between victim and insurer, encompassed, at its worst, by third party capture.
“We want to make sure that government tackles all of the issues outlined in the damages consultation, along with the issues missed out in that consultation such as the long overdue increase in general damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity.”
