Remote blogging
I have now become enabled to blog straight from my iPhone. Technology is truly fantastic.
Where will we be in 5 years time. I will now be able to blog more. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are moving forward at great speed. What will be the next best thing?
I have also set up the blog to work on my iPad. Steve Jobs with technology for Apple was a genius. He has revolutionised our lives. Sometimes this can be frustrating though when we constantly receive emails, tweets, status updates etc.
However it has brought around a new way of contacting with fellow businessmen and individuals.
I have learnt so much about twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. I am just getting used to using You Tube and it’s powerful medium. I hope to use this more in 2012.
Referral Fee ban
The Government has today announced that it is going to ban referral fees for accident claims. I presume that this will be a total ban for all accident claims across the board. I suspect though it will not. There has never been a definition as to what constitues a referral fee. Clarity on this point would be welcome by all.
I would be interested to know whether this Government are going to ban, some insurers in the industry from selling on cases to solicitors as well as solicitors buying cases off claims management companies. The buying and selling of claims has gone on for a number of years.
Some of the insurance industry have developed a reasonable source of income from these fees, as have Claims management Companies. If that income is lost for some insurers where will they seek the extra revenue from? Will it be a member of the public by having to pay increased premiums? The Government believes it will reduce premiums, I hope it does. I trust as well they tackle all the uninsured motorists who push up everyones insurance premiums.
The Government have made it sound as if the insurance industry have to pay solicitors, when a claim settles for these referral fees. No they do not. If a solicitor pays to represent a claimant who is injured due to no fault of their own they are not allowed to recover the referral fee from the party who was at fault.
We keep on hearing about “the compensation culture” but this is not true. If people or companies do wrong which results in someone being injured through no fault of their own then through our legal system they are entitled to claim compensation for their injury and subsequent losses.
Referral fees, do need re-examining in this system but definition as to what they are, clarity as to what everyone can and cannot do and the way forward for a better system. I can see the Claims management companies adapting their styles to offer marketing services to firms for work. We will have to see though whether this will be allowed.
What everyone needs to remember in this, is the Claimant who is injured due to no fault of their own, trying to obtain a fair and reasonable amount of compensation for their injuries and losses.
At Steele, Ford and Newton we will always fight for a Claimants rights.
Changes to claim process?
In the Law Society Gazette today an article has been published why insurers want the Jackson reforms implemented in full. http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/insurance-lawyers-urge-government-implement-cost-reforms-full
Why do they want them implemented?
Claimant lawyers realise that there has to be changes of the no win no fee agreements but not by way of damaged based agreements.
The new agreements will allow a solicitor to obtain up to 25% of a Claimants damages.
Under the present system they take none. Therefore under the current system a Claimant who has been injured due to no fault of their own receives all their compensation.
If the claim is worth £1000 for their injury alone that is what they receive.
Under the new system a Claimant will receive a 10% increase on their injury damages, so they will, for example receive £1100.
However the solicitor can obtain 25% of these monies as part of their fees.
This means a Claimant would only receive £825 for their injury compensation.
A Claimant would be 17.5% worse off under the new system rather than the current one even though the accident was caused by someone else being to blame.
The new system will save insurers money but it will penalise the people who have suffered the most, the Claimant who brings the claim.
How can this be correct?
No win No fee
No win no fee agreements have helped many Claimants bring claims against Defendants who have been to blame for an accident.
We have used these agreements to assist many Claimants in pursuing an accident claim against a wrongdoer. Each of our cases is assessed on it’s merits by a member of our legal team.
By offering this service we have found that Claimant’s have obtained compensation for their injuries and losses.
We have on the 24th November settled an accident at work claim, for a client who was injured. She received £2500.00 for the scarring injury she sustained.
Personal Injury Article
The Jackson reforms were the brainchild of the Labour government. Many thought with the change of government in May 2010 that we had all seen the last of these proposed reforms.
However, people did not count on how the Justice secretary, Ken Clarke, would follow in the last Governments footsteps and implement these reforms.
The reforms have not been implemented as of yet but they are in the process of going through the relevant channels of the house of commons and eventually the House of Lords.
Will the reforms affect personal injury claims? The answer is yes. A lot of cases at this moment in time are undertaken by Claimant lawyers on a No win No Fee basis. These cases are all risk assessed by our firm. If the claim is not one that has merits we do not take it on.
Under the proposed damage based agreements, which will supersede No win No fee agreements Claimants and solicitors may be more reluctant to take claims on. The solicitor will be paid a fixed fee plus a percentage of the Claimants injury damages. This percentage can be anything up to 25%. Claimants damages under the new reforms will increase by 10% on current levels.
Therefore for a simple claim worth £1000 the claimant would receive this for their injury damages.
Under the new system they would receive £1100 less 25% that may have to be paid to the solicitor. This would mean the Claimant receiving £1100 – £275 = £825.
The claimant will be £175 worse off in this scenario compared with the current system. This cannot be correct and action needs to be taken by all of us.
The association of personal injury lawyers are fighting these changes and we would ask you to do the same. There are many groups who can be found on the Internet who are using campaigns to obtain “Access to Justice” for all of us. Please take the time to join one of these and petition Parliament against these reforms.
Social media
There has been much written about social media. We have embraced the social media revolution and can be found on twitter @solicitorslancs and on Facebook at Steele Ford Newton.
The question we are asking does this benefit business’s. We have found that it does as we have managed to integrate with companies who we did not know anything about.
Concept4
We were contacted them via twitter when looking for a website designer. They have developed our website and we have developed a working relationship since March 2011
Love to brand
We have found this company to assist us with our promotional needs.ndanieele who is the owner of the company has been extremely helpful to us and has pointed us in the right direction for our promotional brand.
We have found twitter and Facebook help us connect with people and business’s who we would in the past struggled to have had any contact with.
How do you find social media?
About us
Steele, Ford and Newton solicitors has been associated with the Lancashire and Yorkshire areas for over 100 years.
The current partnership of Mark Irlam, Lee Hammond and Nick Cassidy have been together since 19th January 2009. We have tried to further develop the great foundations laid down by Mr Brian Irlam. We have taken a dynamic approach to the legal world and expect our staff to have a pro-active approach in dealing with our clients.
As with all high street legal practices we undertake various areas of law that can be found on our website – www.steelefordnewton.com
As with the times we have embraced information technology and social media. We find that these areas are helping our business to continue to grow.
If we can assist you please contact us on 01282692531
