In reality, claims companies are brokers, they spend a lot of money on marketing, obtain details of individuals who may have suffered an injury, will then in some cases analyse the information and suggest to the claimant whether he, she or they may have a strong claim or otherwise, and then sell on the leads to personal injury lawyers for a commission. They operate in a very similar way to mortgage packagers, who appeared out of nowhere some 10 years ago, and have largely disappeared.

With some claims companies, they also obtain leads by having arrangements with garage repairers or insurers or breakdown recovery companies, and obtain leads that way. Frankly, some of the operations, including unsolicited texting, phoning and so on are seen as very hard sell, for what should not be a hard sell situation i.e a personal injury. This is where claims companies have also benefited, in addition to them having some good marketing skills and often budget, they can operate in ways in which regulated law firms may not be able to do, although matters have been recently tightened up and the whole system of personal injury lawyers buying leads from claims companies  looks set to be banned as part of a backlash to a huge increase in bogus or exaggerated personal injury claims.

If you have searched for claims companies and want to speak to personal injury claims solicitors, we suggest you click the above link, which will take you through to Waring Solicitors.

First, the bad news. As indicated n the title to this post, new figures from the Department for Transport reveal that the number of cyclist fatalities in accidents is up 7% and serious injuries are up 12%. Strictly speaking there is no good news to come out of this, but the above figures, tragic though they are, may actually represent a proportionate reduction on overall deaths or serious injuries to cyclists when put into the context that the number of cyclists is rising quite rapidly due to :-

• A renaissance in the popularity of cycling generally
• People saving money due to the economic conditions by cycling rather than using cars or public transport
• Boris Johnson (!)

Statistics show that a rise in accidents involving cyclists is a feature of recessionary economic conditions, based on past surveys conducted in the 1930’s and 1980’s.

In terms of the causes of serious injuries or fatalities involving cyclists, according to the Department for Transport, these are as follows :-

• failing to look properly
•  failure to judge speed or other road user’s intentions
•  attempting to access a road from a pavement
• careless or reckless riding