Private equity to target personal injury ?

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Private equity firms possible investors in personal injury market ?

Outside of the magic circle law firms who handle the vast majority of the big corporate and international growth and save perhaps for a very few other niche sectors, almost all growth in the legal sector has been in the personal injury market over the past 5-10 years with the top 50 injury practices believed to employ as many as 30,000 of the 130,000 or so solicitors in England & Wales.

Notwithstanding the ban on referral fees and forthcoming changes to the ability to charge success fees and likely removal of a 100% win for clients, the personal injury sector is still attractive and it seems likely that the first wave of Alternative Business Structures which may involve private equity investment in the legal sector may well target the most successful injury law practices.

We will keep an eye on developments and post updates on any interesting news on the above.

Local authority compensation claims

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Personal Injury Claims gone mad ?

We picked up a recent story in the local press for Dudley in the West Midlands which perhaps indicates what’s wrong with the compensation claims market.

As with any aspect of society, business or life generally, there are good and bad, and the snippet which follows perhaps simply shows the reasons why legitimate claims and hardworking personal injury solicitors who are skilled at what they do get a bad press unfairly.

Anyway, Dudley Council, like all councils, receives a large number of claims each year, and the article in the local paper suggested that this council had received over 800 claims in the last 3 years which would have amounted to over £4 million in damages had they all been paid out. In the event nearly 500 of the claims were rejected and damages of some £500,000.00 paid out. This sum is modest compared to many other councils.

Most personal injury claims against Local Authorities arise from accidents on the public highways, including pavements, due to uneven surfaces and potholes. With weather conditions becoming more changeable and budgets cut, this problem becomes an ever more uphill battle for the Council. Many try their best, some are not so good, not even urgently repairing clearly dangerous reported hazards when reported.

These types of claims against the council for tripping and slipping often turn on the size of any pavement discrepancies and also how regularly the council can prove that it’s Highway Inspectors inspected the road in question and what the last inspection showed.