Personal injury practices: small fish in a big pond

Colin Gibson, chief operating officer, 2020 Legal Limited, parent company of Your Legal Friend and Camps Solicitors www.2020legal.co.uk:

Media coverage of issues like whiplash has created an unfairly negative image of people that pursue legal action for personal injury. Genuine victims have been tarnished with the idea that they are feeding the rise of a ‘compensation culture’.

This environment was one of the motivations for us to rebrand to give greater legal access to justice to those who were not being fairly represented. Therefore, in September 2013, we launched a new direct, consumer-facing brand Your Legal Friend.

Lobbying work

As a longstanding, independent, Merseyside-based legal firm, with over ?30 years of experience, we felt ?it was necessary to ensure we had a brand that reflects both what the company stands for and delivers the value customers want. Our new business-to-consumer brand would also enable us to set ourselves apart from the less reputable operators in the PI market, whose behaviour had been a catalyst initially for the industry reforms.

We are dedicated to helping dismiss the ‘ambulance chasing’ moniker that has plagued many personal injury firms and specifically claims management companies, in the legal industry.

We therefore decided to proactively lobby for access to justice for genuine claimants.

The firm submitted evidence to the Transport Select Committee stressing the importance of protecting access to justice for those genuinely injured in road traffic accidents, subject to independent medical checks and a rigorous claim validation process.

It is vital that we work in an industry that is properly regulated. As part of our lobbying activity, we have been calling for insurers, personal injury lawyers and medical practitioners to work more closely to ensure that any victim of an accident is their prime focus.

Insurers regularly argue that personal injury claims, such as whiplash, are either exaggerated or fraudulent. However, these claims are based on out-of-date figures and completely disregard the physical and emotional impact accidents have on victims. We are actively calling on the insurance and legal industry to share data so we can see the true picture of this supposed ‘compensation culture’.

Customer relations

Our firm has grown rapidly since ?it was founded in 1983, and its portfolio now includes clinical negligence services and group litigation legal services. Understanding the specific needs of the claimant market has led us ?to diversify this year and launch a professional negligence practice. The fact that we are employing high-calibre, specialist fee earners in this field ?will, again, go to underline our credibility in ?the marketplace.

We have also invested in technology, as part ?of our customer-friendly and compliant channel marketing programme. Utilising our network ?of partner businesses and under our business-?to-business brand, Camps Solicitors, we are ?reaching directly a whole new swathe of customers via handheld devices, phone apps ?and dedicated hotlines.  

This platform is underpinned by a specially designed data portal, which means prospective claimants can enter details of their claim via one of our remote devices and receive confirmation of receipt in under a minute.

We are confident about the future as long ?as our sector focuses on good practice and accessibility. To turn the tide of opinion when ?it comes to the perceived ‘claims culture’, ?we must also promote the importance of ?offering independent expert legal advice to innocent victims.

Repositioning the industry will not ?happen overnight, but with concerted efforts ?and calls to address the errors of the past, we can safeguard victims and champion access to justice.

Jeanette Miller, senior partner, JS Miller Solicitors www.jsmillersolicitors.co.uk

JS Miller Solicitors is a small personal injury firm. We are small out of choice and I feel fortunate to have been able to maintain a steady stream of quality work despite our policy (predating the referral fee ban) to refuse to pay for our cases.

We do not operate a ‘conveyor-belt streamlined factory’ dealing with road traffic accident (RTA) claims. Instead, I have always believed that if we provide a high quality of service to personal injury clients that is tailored to the individual, ?the work will continue to roll in and we can be profitable in the process.

Bottom line

That said, we haven’t felt the full brunt of the reforms yet, as we are still working our way through many cases that fall under the old ?costs regime.

I am not naïve enough to believe that we ?are infallible. I expect the reforms to have some impact on the bottom line of my firm, not least because the fixed-fee reduction was supposedly intended to remove referral fees which we have not been paying.

Rather than having a knee-jerk reaction and seeking the closest suitable merger with one of ?the ‘big boys’, I am confident that the firm will survive and, moreover, hopefully thrive.

We have strategised to ensure our best chances of this and, among other investments, we recently upgraded our case management system to Proclaim.

We have also invested more than ever before in our marketing initiatives, some of which have been more successful than others.

We also have a knack of winning the seemingly unwinnable cases and, if anything, the changes on costs recovery help us to pursue claims we would otherwise be more cautious about litigating.

In my history of 13 years trading, we have never had to downsize, reduce our working hours or contemplate closure. Actually, I tell a lie, there was a year when our PI insurance quadrupled in price. That nearly finished us off, but thankfully we got through that nightmare and now we are regularly approached by our PI insurers with early (very competitive) renewal options. This is because of our very thorough approach to risk management, largely led by Lexcel which we attained in 2002.  

Feng shui

I am also in an unusual position in that I run two firms. Geoffrey Miller Solicitors is a specialist in motoring law. I took over the firm in 2005 when my father suffered an unexpected and serious stroke. While this was extremely traumatic at the time, almost ten years on, I can see it as a blessing to not have all my eggs in one basket.

I think another USP of both businesses is my vision and my excellent team. I have a strong belief in positive thinking, the Law of Attraction and like every Chinese business (their economy speaks for itself) have regular Feng Shui consultations in our contemporary albeit low-rent offices.

Perhaps, slightly ironic to use the words of one of the giants: “Every little helps.”

 

Dr Neil Hudgell, managing director, Neil Hudgell Solicitors www.neil-hudgell.co.uk

My firm has actively pursued an acquisition strategy over the last two to three years, alongside investment in direct marketing for new clients to achieve consistent growth of about 100 per cent in terms of turnover, net profit before exceptional spend and staffing levels.

The temptation is to push on at the same pace, but I intend to put on the brakes over the next 12 months, so we have more modest growth, with the primary goal of consolidating our position in the market as a regional, niche personal injury and clinical negligence practice with a national client base and a reputation for excellent client care.

Continuing change

I will be happy to achieve ten per cent growth this year, in a climate of continuing change. The biggest challenge to most firms in our space is improving excellence in the way things are done and ensuring systems are in place so that time limits and key dates are religiously met.

Two of our most recent deals have come about because of the unfortunate situation of another practice being unable to secure professional indemnity insurance. One of those was because the firm simply couldn’t attract enough new business, making the price of insurance prohibitive, while the other had a recent claims history making them an uninsurable proposition.

We are going to see more of those types of scenarios emerging as the year progresses, and that is very much influencing my thoughts in terms of continuing expansion and/or consolidation in the business.
While I think there is scope to continue to bolt on caseloads and practices, we are increasingly investing significantly more time and money in ‘upskilling’ our staff.   

Mitchell and its ramifications scares the life out ?of me.

I don’t want my firm to be one of those missing deadlines, making claims on indemnity insurance and seeing a hike in premiums or, worse still, ?being viewed as an uninsurable proposition in ?the market place.
As a firm increasingly dealing with high-value work I do not anticipate that more than a small number of claims (say two or three) will be needed to give rise to that type of scenario.

Initial pessimism

We have always had a history of adapting to change in our industry, despite initial pessimism. It’s in our DNA as lawyers to think that the end of the world is nigh, in the face of waves of unwelcome change; hence why we surrendered a big chunk of the market to claims management companies some years back.

That is why I didn’t fear Jackson particularly. There will always be people having accidents and always work out there, at least until the government bans making claims altogether…   

It simply means processing those cases quicker, more efficiently and/or targeting niche areas outside of Jackson. The far greater risk to the longevity of my business, and any other personal injury firm, is not in securing the work, but doing it properly and not having a line of disgruntled clients and ticking time bombs screaming negligence at you.  

It is clear that we face further attacks on our industry, but we can only build our business plan around the here and now and in light of what’s on the immediate horizon. For now, that means for us continued investment in our direct marketing strategy, a handful of bolt-on acquisitions and an investment in systems and staff to attract work, keep it and complete it efficiently and quickly.

Most days I wake up and ask myself why I am a personal injury lawyer when it feels like the government is looking to drive us all out of business. The answer is simple: it’s because after nearly 20 years I know nothing else. I am certainly not brave enough to try something new, so I just need to get on, survive and make the best of a difficult situation.

I’m confident, though never complacent, that we can do that.

 

Paul Kaye, director, Pudsey Legal Services www.pudseylegal.com

The last 12 months has not been straightforward for any law firm. Specialist legal aid practices and firms who did nothing but personal injury have suffered the most.

The bigger the firm, the higher the overheads: expensive city centre rents and large numbers of qualified staff who need appropriate CPD points all place a burden on a firm’s bottom line return.

History books

The days of lawyers boasting more than one secretary and competing for the most outstanding dictation must be relegated ?to history.

To compete in the present market, the key is a bespoke case management system which is user friendly, ultra efficient and allows the fee earners to run a caseload without having to rely on ?a secretary.

Administrative support is not fee earning. It is an overhead. Margins are down so every pound saved in that area has a direct knock-on effect on the bottom line.

Fixed fees are what clients demand so there are no hidden extras and they have certainty. This works well for the firm as well, as they know how much they can budget on a particular type of transaction. Taking on other areas of work so as to offer a wider range of high street services opens up the possibility of other income streams.

Marketing is crucial. Many firms just assume a nice sign is enough: wrong. The full repertoire of social media has to be exploited to the max. Equally, a website needs to be worked on daily, not every two or three months.

Getting seen on a regular basis in the local newspaper also helps to raise the firm’s profile.

Flexible working

The client is king. Look after them in terms of ‘under sell and over deliver’, and you’re an instant success. Firms overlook the crucial fact that we are like any other business dealing with ‘customers’; that we’re in a customer service industry, not just selling the law.

Flexibility in working methods, so as to service the customer need, means not only that you have a satisfied client, but they will also act as an advocate in generating new business. Never view a client as a single transaction: you want them to come back, or get them to recommend one of their friends or family to utilise the service.

Expansion can only happen if you have a solid business model which is founded on solid cash flow and low overheads and a steady supply of new business coming in through the door. Firms may elect to merge their resources with another practice, but what does that achieve?

It can take a few years before the firm truly becomes ‘one’, as staff and clients still have loyalties to the original identity of each practice.

In some cases this occurs with a view to acquiring a ‘profitable part’ of the target firm. Once that is obtained, it is usually followed by an exodus of staff, usually from the practice that was taken over. SJ