Jack Straw outlines his Bill to crack down on referral fees

The Motor Insurance Regulation Bill will be introduced on 20 January 2012.

The five provisions tabled in the motion are - to make it unlawful and a criminal offence to solicit, offer, or pay referral fees relating to a personal injury traffic claim; to introduce objective evidence for whiplash claims; to half the MoJ fixed fee for road traffic claims pursued through the portal; to prohibit insurers from isolating risk on the basis of a geographic area smaller than a region; and to bring forward certain provisions in Data Protection Act.

The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, said: "Jack Straw is deluded if he thinks a lawyer could possibly give advice to an injured person for the price of £100. In all cases the solicitor needs to talk to the client to understand the symptoms, and the impact of the injury on the client's life, as well as obtaining a medical report. These were the factors taken into account when fixed costs for road traffic accidents were agreed with the insurance industry only last year.

"Mr Straw should also be aware of the Association of British Insurers' own report of 2008. In Tackling Whiplash: Care, Prevention, Compensation it is said that "vehicle bodies have become stiffer since the late 1980s, increasing crashworthiness in high speed rear-end crashes. This helps reduce the incidence of serious injuries, but may increase the incidence of whiplash, due to higher relative transfer of energy in a crash."

It added: "Surely Mr Straw would not prefer to see a return to increased serious injuries? Of course fraud must be discouraged, and we support the Transport Select Committee's recommendation that insurers must take a lead in this. Insurers should be under a duty to inform claimant lawyers the minute that they have suspicions that a claimant is fraudulent. Fraud is crime and claimant lawyers are also on the front line. They can't help to fight it with their hands tied behind their backs."

Jack Straw will be speaking at Post's Claims Event on 12th October. For more information or to register your place contact Chris Pullinger on 020 7484 9924 or christopher.pullinger@incisivemedia.com.