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'Solicitors’ Core Duties—Tell it to the miners please!
Rule 1 of The Solicitors’ Code of Conduct 2007 states that solicitors must, ‘act with INTEGRITY, in the BEST INTERESTS of CLIENTS and must NOT allow their INDEPENDENCE to be compromised’. A good and sensible rule you might think, but when viewed in the light of how some solicitors have treated their clients’ miners compensation claims it can only further damage the reputation of the solicitors profession as a whole and further undermine public confidence in solicitors.
It’s true that most people don’t like Solicitors and certainly don’t want to use them unless they absolutely have to. People are generally forced to use Solicitors in a distressed purchase situation like going through a divorce or buying a house where the transaction can only really be dealt with by a Solicitor. When it comes to accident claims some people try and go it alone and deal with the Insurers themselves but they run the risk of having the wool pulled over their eyes so they choose a solicitor.
In the personal injury law matters are further complicated by terminology used such as “No Win No Fee” and this is misleading. What No Win No Fee does NOT MEAN is that if you win your case you will receive all your damages in full. Many people who have instructed a solicitor on a No Win No Fee basis have learnt this at their expense because any shortfall of their Solicitors fee has eaten into their damages.
No Win No Fee does NOT mean that if you win your case you get 100% of your damages unless you have managed to secure some additional guarantee or protection from your Solicitor or Claims Company.
Miners Compensation Claims
Here we have a prime example of fat cat solicitors taking advantage of their poor coal miner clients. What’s happened is that the Government introduced a scheme to fund the compensation of former miners and their estates in relation to dust related lung disease or hand condition caused by vibrating machinery. The scheme also included a structure to pay the Solicitors fee in dealing with each of the miners claims and the Solicitors fees on average were between £2,200 and £2,300.00 per case. Interestingly the average compensation awarded to each miner around the same amount (£2,289.00).The Solicitors have deducted out of the client’s compensation referral fees that they have paid to a Claims Management Company called Indiclaim which is strongly linked with the Union of Democratic Mine Workers. It would seem that some of the solicitors have deducted from client’s damages monies to Indiclaim as part of the referral fee.In essence the correct thing to do should have been to pay that referral fee out of their own fees received under the scheme.
When one considers the amount of work involved by those Solicitors in securing the enormous fees achieved in particular by dealing with large volumes of these miners claims it seems that the Solicitors have at the very least been greedy and at worst dishonest in making those deductions from client’s damages.
Since March 2004 it has been accepted practice for Solicitors to pay referral fees subject to certain conditions being fulfilled.It remains unclear as to how The Law Society or more particularly its disciplinary arm the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal will resolve miners complaints against their solicitors and a fair number of solicitors currently face disciplinary action. It is quite possible that the Tribunal will find those solicitors to have acted dishonestly or at the very least to have broken Rule of the Solicitors Code of Conduct.
This is the view from Accident Claim Centre - no win no fee personal injury UK.