coldel Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Just read briefly in the news, Jack Straw having a go at insurance companies for selling on clients details (illegally) to lawyer firms who then spam you with services. I remember someone on here mentioning within days of an accident having texts and email appearing saying he should go after compensation. I get them still, last year my car had the front wing damaged, I had to claim through the insurance, what gets lost in all that is that I wasn't in the car at the time! So I still get texts about claiming for injuries when in fact it was someone in the night hitting the car and driving off whilst I was tucked up in bed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HassanZ Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 I get these calls all the time too. Funnily enough They always call MY number thinking they are speaking to my brother When I inform them I am not him I'm his brother, they then switch to desperate mode and ask if I know anyone that has been involved in an accident! I still don't get how they have got my number down with my brother's details where ever they got the info from... WHAT THE HELL!!??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldel Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Business/Jack-Straw-Calls-For-Insurance-Industry-To-Ban-Referrals-To-Personal-Injury-Firms/Article/201106416019499?lpos=Business_Third_Home_Page_Article_Teaser_Region__3&lid=ARTICLE_16019499_Jack_Straw_Calls_For_Insurance_Industry_To_Ban_Referrals_To_Personal_Injury_Firms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 About time. Last time I had an accident (no fault of mine i hasten to add), I had dozens of hire car companys fighting over lending me a car and solicitors calling me about claiming whiplash etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TomS Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 From The Times Companies are selling drivers’ details to claims firms exploiting the no-win, no-fee system ‘Our records indicate that you may be entitled to £3,450 for the accident you had. To claim free reply CLAIM to this message,†went the text that my pal Phil Riley received last week. This “accident†was, in truth, a minor prang. Phil had stopped in traffic. The chap behind drove into him, with minor damage to Phil’s car; no personal injuries. The other driver’s insurer paid Phil’s repair bill. Within days of this prang, 18 months ago, Phil was bombarded with texts and personal calls to tell him that if he would make a claim, three or four thousand pounds would be his for the personal injury he had suffered. He told the callers what they were doing was amoral. He had no injury. The texts and calls continued. Phil asked me, as his MP, how the claims companies had obtained his details including his mobile phone number. He had never authorised this. Didn’t he have some basic data protection rights? I went to see the Association of British Insurers (ABI) and senior executives of two of Britain’s largest motor insurers and asked them. A long pause, a look of embarrassment, then one of the executives said: “This is the industry’s dirty secret. It’s we, the insurance companies, who sell on this personal information.†Incredulous, I asked how it could be in an insurance company’s interest to sell information to a claims company that was used to make a claim against the self-same company. “If we don’t sell this information, others in the know will do so — recovery firms, garages, credit companies, the insurance company on the other side, even the police.†(One police force made £1.3 million in 2008-9.) The income from this trade is huge, £200-£1,000 for each referral. There can be several from just one accident. Referral fees are now a crucial part of all insurance companies’ revenue streams. Phil had another question: “Why, for law-abiding folk with impeccable records, are car insurance premiums rocketing when our roads have never been safer?†The figures are stunning. In 2009 the number of road accidents involving personal injury was 31 per cent down from the average for 1994-98. Improvements in car safety mean that where there is an accident the risk of being badly injured has dropped significantly. Thefts of and from vehicles have also slumped — down by almost three quarters (72 per cent) between 1995 and 2010. Meanwhile, premiums have shot up by at least 30 per cent in the past year and in some urban areas by even more. Yet most motor insurers are still operating at a loss. The answer to Phil’s second question is that law-abiding drivers are victims of “a dysfunctional system in which everyone behaves badlyâ€, as one senior insurer told me. The rewards for this bad behaviour can be great. The number of registered claims management companies has doubled to 3,400 in two years. Their high-pressure sales techniques have led to a phenomenal growth in the number and value of claims for personal injury. The cost of personal injury claims has doubled in ten years, from £7 billion to £14 billion. ABI analysis shows a direct link between the number of claims companies in a region and the level of claims. In the North West, with a high density of claims companies, 40 per cent of claims have a “bodily injury componentâ€, compared with 25 per cent across the country — yet the region’s roads are no less safe. The “bodily injury†that the claims company was enticing Phil to make was for “whiplashâ€, which now accounts for 80 per cent of all claims. It’s perfect for the claims companies: a soft-tissue injury that no scan or X-ray can pick up, so claims rely on the patient’s description. It’s usually entirely trivial. Respectable medical websites prescribe paracetamol. The cost to the NHS of treating whiplash is only £8 million. The cost to insurers of whiplash claims is £2 billion. Very odd. The current “no-win, no-fee†arrangements for legal costs mean that it’s usually cheaper for an insurer to concede a claim than fight it. Add in the growth of “cash for crash†frauds and it’s little wonder that the law-abiding public are being milked as they are. • The senior insurance executives I met are decent people. They dislike the unwholesome trap they are in. But they know that change must be imposed externally. Here’s how: Referral fees should be outlawed, and the no-win, no-fee system speedily reformed, as Lord Justice Jackson’s 2010 review (endorsed by all parties) recommended; • The law on damages for whiplash should be changed to require proof of serious injury, as other jurisdictions do; • The Information Commissioner and Ofcom should crack down firmly on the trade in personal data and hard-selling techniques, if necessary with new powers; • Much tighter regulation of claims companies must be introduced. There will be howls from those with a vested interest in the present system, all protesting that what they do is in the public interest. It’s balderdash. This is not a system; it’s a racket. The quicker it’s ended, the better it will be for the law-abiding motorist, including my pal Phil. Jack Straw is the Labour MP for Blackburn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M13KYF Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Personal Injury Firms are gutter life. The quicker they disappear the better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HassanZ Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Personal Injury Firms are gutter life. The quicker they disappear the better Do the sales people even make any money? I can't see people even going ahead with a claim so spontaneously! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leonk Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Coldel said.... in fact it was someone in the night hitting the car and driving off whilst I was tucked up in bed! Are you sure you didn't hear the accident and stub your toe getting out of bed or twist your neck?? Maybe your still having flashbacks?? I'm sure you've still got a very strong case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coldel Posted June 27, 2011 Author Share Posted June 27, 2011 In fact I am still narked by it, to the point that sometimes my heart rate goes up by about 1 beat a minute on the odd occasion. This will undoubtedly mean my early demise on the grounds of the accident to my cars front wing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HassanZ Posted June 27, 2011 Share Posted June 27, 2011 Coldel said.... in fact it was someone in the night hitting the car and driving off whilst I was tucked up in bed! Are you sure you didn't hear the accident and stub your toe getting out of bed or twist your neck?? Maybe your still having flashbacks?? I'm sure you've still got a very strong case. Classic... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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