As we all know, running a business is hard at the best of times, more so now with the austerity measures beginning to affect every part of our business and private finances.
The public will be surprised to learn that amongst all of the professions we lawyers have had to re-adjust more than most sectors which have been hit very hard by the recession which led to the changes in the banking industry.
Personal injury lawyers are set to be hit even harder over the medium to long term with the introduction of significant changes by the Government which will potentially reduce the level of income which we derive from injury claims and are pursued on behalf of our clients on a “no win no fee” basis.
The removal of success fees will potentially hit personal injury law firms hard although, as with most changes, we at Johnson Law will look to adapt and adjust our business model to ensure that we can continue to offer the same high level of services to our customers.
One of the main proposals is not to allow a success fee to be claimed from the Defendants insurers upon successful conclusion of an injury claim. In my view this will not deter injury lawyers from accepting border line cases as intended by the government .I think you will find that the better quality injury lawyers will continue to risk assess the claims as they do now and their acceptance rate of cases will not change.
We at Johnson law intend to continue to fight for compensation for our clients who, let us not forget, are the innocent victims here, and who are entitled to pursue their personal injury claims.
Where possible we want to avoid situations where there is an in-balance between both parties in personal injury litigation with a Claimant being unrepresented against large Defendant insurers and/or their solicitors. The government seems now to be paying lip service to the public’s right to access justice and the proposals are a clear attempt to reduce the number of genuine injury claims against insurers.
This will only lead to claimants being under compensated. We must be there for all accident victims and offer support to the communities that we serve and we must face the changes head-on.
I believe that Johnson Law will continue to be innovative and dynamic in the way in it addresses the obstacles which are about to be presented and these will be overcome and our clients will not suffer a drop in service standards .Although we have a wealth of experience in the personal injury arena the firm itself is also relatively young, innovative and dynamic. Over the years and through the recent recession we have proven ourselves to also be very resourceful and extremely competitive.
In my view it is important that law firms are able to offer their customers a range of services. The firm, as well as specialising in road accidents, workplace accidents and all other injury claims also has an excellent reputation in the credit hire sector and we continue to look for new markets and opportunities to help develop the excellent reputation of this practice.
The introduction of alternative business structures and changes to our Code of Conduct in October will represent fresh challenges which will embrace. It is indeed a brave new world out there.