Lawyers to pay claimants for pesonal injury work

A new website has been launched, which could revolutionise the way personal injury claims are handled in the future, resulting in the claimant being paid by the lawyer who takes on their case.

The Law Bazaar (www.thelawbazaar.com) has been set up by a solicitor with 20 years’ experience in personal injury claims in response to the ‘rip off’ schemes being run by claims management companies (CMCs) and insurers.

Costas Andrea, founder of The Law Bazaar and former equity partner at two top 100 law firms, commented, “Most people don’t realise that insurers make around £400 million each year solely by selling their own insured’s injury claims to their panel solicitors for up to £750 a time. The insurers and CMCs, appoint their own solicitors and arrange items such as medical examinations and vehicle hire – making money on each transaction. The person who is injured, however, sees nothing of the money accumulated by the insurers and CMCs but simply receives their damages.”

“I created The Law Bazaar to highlight the greed of insurers and claims farmers who are cashing in on the unsuspecting public. I wanted to help the claimant and the lawyer come together directly, with both benefiting financially. There is nothing that a claims management company does which the solicitor handling the case cannot do and therefore there really is no need to involve them in the process.”

Using The Law Bazaar, the claimant simply goes on to the website to register his or her injury case. An experienced personal injury lawyer will contact the claimant directly and pay £150 to The Law Bazaar when taking on the case. The lawyer, who is then around £600 better off than going down the traditional route of buying claims from insurers CMCs, is then in a position to offer some of this money to the claimant in addition to the damages relating to the case.

Solicitor, Tessa Shepperson, Honorary Secretary of the Norfolk and Norwich Law Society commented, “Through The Law Bazaar, the vast sums of money earned by large financial organisations on the back of people in distress is being exposed. I welcome The Law Bazaar as a much fairer system of handling injury claims.”

The Law Bazaar is not restricted to injury claims. It provides a virtual meeting place, putting individuals and businesses in contact with lawyers worldwide on all aspects of the law, including debt collection, employment, contract, family, property, wills, trusts and pensions. Free to use and anonymous, it provides clients with a non- threatening environment within which to interact with lawyers, enabling them to decide which lawyer to use based on price, expertise, location and client ratings. For further information, visit www.thelawbazaar.com.