A nice little earner.

[duncet]

I think we all know that being in the legal profession is as good as having a licence to print money.
"No Win No Fee" has proved another money making scheme for those who can always rely on a queue of customers, all hopeful of a financial reward for having been involved in some kind of incident - no matter how trivial. Of course many of these claims are made against organisations such as the NHS, so any payout depletes what could have been spent on patient care.
Today I spotted in a national newspaper an advert placed by a Legal company - "Have you or a loved one ever suffered from a pressure sore?" - "You could be entitled to compensation for the pain and suffering caused". Where is this going to stop?
The advert goes on to say that they had secured £55,000 compensation for an elderly lady who had developed a pressure sore to her leg whilst in hospital". This was obviously unfortunate - but £55,000 to the patient and goodness knows what the rake off was for the legal firm - is a burden that the hospital involved could, I am sure, better spend on patient care.
Lawyers are unscrupulous and mainly go unchallenged. Certainly, when it comes to claims against public bodies, it is us - the taxpayers - who are keeping them in a lifestyle of which the rest of us can only dream of.

[Albion102]

Agree entirely Duncet with what you have said. What are UKIP going to do about it and how do you think this policy will play to the demographic that UKIP in the north are trying to attract and in general are the very ones who go straight for the compo at every opportunity.

[silver fox]

We have all just seen ample evidence of lawyers in action, now the MOD has finally caught up with the totally unscrupulous barsteward who was behind all but a very few of claims against British soldiers from serving in Iraq, that little lot has cost £millions and destroyed many lives, scum like that should be taken out and shot, they are every bit as bad as just about any criminal you can think of.

So many lawyers and law firms are just as much parasites as drug dealers, don't care about the effects of their actions, just as long as the payouts land in their pockets.

[grassroots]

Solicitors are just legal scum .

[fairhaven]

Solicitors are just legal scum .

A bit harsh, the legal profession is just like the rest of society, there are always some who will take advantage giving the rest a bad name. I've recently received excellent service from my solicitor at a reasonable price.

[tonyhey]

Back in 1993, we used a firm of Solicitors in Bolton to negotiate the sale of our haulage company to a takeover rival. We used them on a recommendation as they were experienced in transport matters. They did their job which only took three weeks from initial consultation to completion. At the conclusion they presented us with a bill for an eye watering £18000 plus VAT, and as if that wasn't enough, they further another £9000 plus VAT, for what they described as "good care and conduct".

[melanieb]

One of the biggest scandals of recent times in terms of the ambulance chasing variety of solicitors must be the 'have you ever been in the company of Rolf Harris, Jimmy Saville et al.....' in which case, form an orderly queue for your compo! I never thought I'd see the day when dead people could be sued but it seems there are even firms of solicitors who will pursue claims for sexual abuse even when the alleged defendant is no longer able to argue his case. Ah well, sign of the times maybe..............

[grassroots]

[QUOTE=fairhaven;6587401]A bit harsh, the legal profession is just like the rest of society, there are always some who will take advantage giving the rest a bad name. I've recently received excellent service from my solicitor at a reasonable price.[/Q

Fairhaven, pleased for you , but it doesn't change my opinion of the legal
Profession , the majority of whom should be behind bars, a well know firm not far from the old PO are just RIP off merchants .

[fairhaven]

[QUOTE=grassroots;6587428]

A bit harsh, the legal profession is just like the rest of society, there are always some who will take advantage giving the rest a bad name. I've recently received excellent service from my solicitor at a reasonable price.[/Q

Fairhaven, pleased for you , but it doesn't change my opinion of the legal
Profession , the majority of whom should be behind bars, a well know firm not far from the old PO are just RIP off merchants .

Sorry you appear to have had a bad experience but still feel you're OTT blaming the majority without any evidence.

[silver fox]

[QUOTE=fairhaven;6587445]

Sorry you appear to have had a bad experience but still feel you're OTT blaming the majority without any evidence.

Of course there are ethical law firms and individuals out there, but there are also far too many actively touting for business using reps and finders, plus the barrage of advertising which encourages claims in circumstances where there is little cause or reason for such a claim.

Ambulance chasing spread from the USA when solicitors and lawyers were allowed to advertise their services, since then law firms have leaped on every little wrinkle in legislation to pursue cases on any grounds, human rights legislation is one area of considerable abuse, with lawyers fighting against deportation orders, defending illegal immigrants, even convicted criminals. Most if not all of this is paid for by the taxpayer, with lawyers launching multiple appeals to prolong their income as much as possible. The eventual deportation of Abu Qatada is classic.

[grassroots]

[QUOTE=silver fox;6587464]

Of course there are ethical law firms and individuals out there, but there are also far too many actively touting for business using reps and finders, plus the barrage of advertising which encourages claims in circumstances where there is little cause or reason for such a claim.

Ambulance chasing spread from the USA when solicitors and lawyers were allowed to advertise their services, since then law firms have leaped on every little wrinkle in legislation to pursue cases on any grounds, human rights legislation is one area of considerable abuse, with lawyers fighting against deportation orders, defending illegal immigrants, even convicted criminals. Most if not all of this is paid for by the taxpayer, with lawyers launching multiple appeals to prolong their income as much as possible. The eventual deportation of Abu Qatada is classic.

Some great points SF.

[Albion102]

[QUOTE=silver fox;6587464]

Of course there are ethical law firms and individuals out there, but there are also far too many actively touting for business using reps and finders, plus the barrage of advertising which encourages claims in circumstances where there is little cause or reason for such a claim.

Ambulance chasing spread from the USA when solicitors and lawyers were allowed to advertise their services, since then law firms have leaped on every little wrinkle in legislation to pursue cases on any grounds, human rights legislation is one area of considerable abuse, with lawyers fighting against deportation orders, defending illegal immigrants, even convicted criminals. Most if not all of this is paid for by the taxpayer, with lawyers launching multiple appeals to prolong their income as much as possible. The eventual deportation of Abu Qatada is classic.

The human rights legislation creates a few high profile cases, but it is the abuse of claims under the tort of negligence that is far more insidious. I'm far more bothered about the NHS's £1.4Bn bill for negligence claims than a couple of immigrants or the £50 per year that every motorist pays in insurance simply to cover cash for crash fraud.

[Nomad]

I think we all know that being in the legal profession is as good as having a licence to print money.
"No Win No Fee" has proved another money making scheme for those who can always rely on a queue of customers, all hopeful of a financial reward for having been involved in some kind of incident - no matter how trivial. Of course many of these claims are made against organisations such as the NHS, so any payout depletes what could have been spent on patient care.
Today I spotted in a national newspaper an advert placed by a Legal company - "Have you or a loved one ever suffered from a pressure sore?" - "You could be entitled to compensation for the pain and suffering caused". Where is this going to stop?
The advert goes on to say that they had secured £55,000 compensation for an elderly lady who had developed a pressure sore to her leg whilst in hospital". This was obviously unfortunate - but £55,000 to the patient and goodness knows what the rake off was for the legal firm - is a burden that the hospital involved could, I am sure, better spend on patient care.
Lawyers are unscrupulous and mainly go unchallenged. Certainly, when it comes to claims against public bodies, it is us - the taxpayers - who are keeping them in a lifestyle of which the rest of us can only dream of.

I see you disagree with NHS funding being diverted from patient care to fill the pockets of lawyers, so do you feel the same way about money being diverted from patient care to the shareholders of private companies? It's just that I associate you with UKIP, and NHS privatisation is high on the priorities of both Malay and the egregious Nuttall.

Speaking of the latter, would you care to comment on his lies about Hillsborough?

[silver fox]

The human rights legislation creates a few high profile cases, but it is the abuse of claims under the tort of negligence that is far more insidious. I'm far more bothered about the NHS's £1.4Bn bill for negligence claims than a couple of immigrants or the £50 per year that every motorist pays in insurance simply to cover cash for crash fraud.

Qatada alone cost us £1.7m to get rid, it is estimated that overall deporting illegals costs us £100m p/a, it is also worth noting that many illegals can't be deported, because of no documents, no provable identity, no proof of country of origin plus just for laughs some countries who won't take them back, it is estimated that to remove all known illegals from this country would take about 20 years and cost in the region of £40b.

I certainly agree with your anger at the way in which the NHS is targeted by these "truth seeking lawyers", but there are more than one or two making a damn good living from the taxpayer, saw a case last year of a lawyer who had shown an income of £1.5m in the previous year, all from fighting deportation cases, all funded by the taxpayer, lawyers as a profession are rapidly joining politicians, door to door double glazing salesmen, back street car dealers in the trusted and popularity stakes.

[duncet]

I see you disagree with NHS funding being diverted from patient care to fill the pockets of lawyers, so do you feel the same way about money being diverted from patient care to the shareholders of private companies? It's just that I associate you with UKIP, and NHS privatisation is high on the priorities of both Malay and the egregious Nuttall.

Speaking of the latter, would you care to comment on his lies about Hillsborough?

Of course I disagree with taxpayers money ending up in the back pockets of shareholders, when it should be spent on patient care. Unfortunately we are already a long way down the road of NHS privatisation which began under the Blair Government and has been gathering pace ever since. I am very much on the side of keeping privatisation out of the NHS (and certainly other essential services such as the prison service). Keeping the NHS in the public sector has always been UKIP policy and will always remain so.
I think you would be very surprised how similar my political views are to yours in many respects.
The major difference between us is that I don't aggressively attack everyone who carries a different political label.