Is It Possible To Find A Reliable Personal Injury Solicitor?

The reputation of personal injury solicitors has once more been blighted by the recent case of the two solicitors who managed to make £30.2m from sick miners. With the firm’s partners being struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, it is inevitable that the reputation of their profession will suffer.

The solicitors firm in question handled 10,000 miners’ claims under a government compensation scheme for sick miners. However, the pair were found to be charging conditional fees on top of those provided from the scheme, resulting in grostesque profits which earned one of the solicitor's the title of Britain’s richest lawyer in 2008.

The two solicitors successfully exploited thousands of miners, the government’s scheme and a legal system which honors legitimate compensation claims, all for personal gain. The damage done to the reputation of personal injury solicitors by these two will be only further compounded by a Solicitors’ Regulation Authority investigation (SRA) into 40 other law firms who handled miners’ claims.

However, the disciplinary actions of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal gives a clear message to personal injury solicitors or individuals tempted to exploit the justice system’s allowance for compensation claims. The strong judgement of the tribunal, which found the pair guilty of eight out of the 11 allegations lobbied against them, suggests a zero tolerance stance towards those tempted to dishonestly profit from the misfortunes of others.

The readiness of the tribunal to exclude the two solicitors from their profession, alongside the other solicitors who corruptly profited from the miners’ compensation claims, demonstrates active regulation of the legal practise which should go someway towards restoring faith. Individuals wishing to make a compensation claim should not need to worry about the honesty of their legal representative; it should come as standard.

However, cases such as that of these two partners does little to instil confidence, and the actions of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal come far too late to be of real comfort to the miners who were subject to the malpractises of the pair.

Nonetheless, the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal has demonstrated that dishonesty in their profession will not be tolerated. And despite the negative press, it is still possible to find an honest personal injury solicitor to handle compensation claims. While the case involving the two solictors highlights that corruption still plagues the personal injury claims field, there remains a large quantity of personal injury solicitors who serve a valuable role.