New figures released by YouGov has revealed that consumer trust in lawyers and solicitors, when it comes to representation for personal injury claim is 32% higher than the insurance industry.
According to their latest report on personal injury, up to 40% of consumers who were involved in the report claimed that they had a strong desire to approach a lawyer or solicitor when it came to potential future claims, with just 8% drawn to insurers.
The figures show just how people feel towards the insurance industry as a whole and should certainly be noted by the government when they consider who to side with when making any future decisions about personal injury reform. After all they are there to do what is best for the country and the country clearly feels that, in the instance of suffering a personal injury, they are in safer hands with a lawyer or solicitor.
Insurers have had the rub of the green when it has come to the important debates about the personal injury sector and have regularly pulled out the compensation culture card or the ‘doing what is right for consumers’ card in order to persuade the government to give them what they want.
This report debates whether this has actually been the case, as due to the reforms it is now harder than ever to get legal representation for a personal injury claim and a lot of people will now feel like they are being forced down the insurer settlement route which, as this report clearly shows, they don’t really want to take.
The report also revealed that less than one in three people who have been victims of personal injury or an accident have actually gone on to make a claim over the last 5 years, pouring further scorn over the insurance industry’s and government’s belief that we are currently living within the compensation culture.
The most likely reason given by those involved in the report for not pursuing a claim, despite suffering a personal injury or an accident, is the belief that the accident or injury was not of a serious enough nature to justify a claim, which completely nullifies the argument that people within the UK need little excuse to make claims for compensation in the current climate.
Also within the report it was revealed that more than a quarter of accident victims said they did not make a claim for compensation because they did not believe in claiming for compensation in the first place.
With the government bringing in tough new legislation across the personal injury industry, it is now harder than ever for genuine claimants to proceed with legal representation, which has played nicely into the hands of the insurers and their early offer methods, which lack any medical evidence.
Indeed the report run by YouGov revealed that despite the drop in the proportion of people making claims for their personal injuries, the amount of unsolicited marketing is still widespread. In the UK, 62% of adults reported being approached in the last 12 months in order to encourage a claim, and out of those numbers only one in five have actually been eligible to make a claim, with just six percent actually going through with it.
The personal injury industry has long since campaigned against these marketing methods and has consistently asked for the government to bring in tougher legislation against claims management companies (often backed by insurers) in order to rid the industry of unsolicited marketing methods such as cold calling through texts, phone calls and emails, rather than removing important legal services from those genuine claimants who do need and deserve it.
Image source(s)
1. YouGov; https://jobs.yougov.com/