NHS trusts ordered to remove ‘no win, no fee’ adverts

There is a growing clamor, and in some cases for understandable reasons, to reign in the worst excesses of the personal injury market.

What is frankly rather ironic and hypocritical is the way in which, when facing anger and criticism about big increases in insurance premiums, particularly car insurance, the insurers pass the buck to personal injury lawyers, notwithstanding that :-

• they have known about and done little to combat postcode personal injury claims for whiplash
• they have been earning money by charging lawyers for referrals when their insured’s want to make a claim against another insured’s insurers

The same principle perhaps applies to the hospitals who have been taking in revenue from allowing personal injury lawyers to advertise in official hospital publications. On one level this can’t be justified, that is on the moral level, particularly given that NHS Trusts who allow advertising have shown clever business skills by making any advertising dependent upon the law firm agreeing not to sue that Trust. However, such advertising being allowed does in some way legitimise the encouragement of making claims, and perhaps shifts problems in some cases onto other Trusts and local organizations such as the local council or other public bodies.