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A group of barristers and solicitors founded APIL in 1990 to give a voice to those injured through no fault of their own. Since then we have worked tirelessly to preserve the rights of injured people. Those doing the groundwork are personal injury practitioners, who make up APIL’s 3,400 strong membership. APIL campaigns for improvements in the law, promotes safety so that needless injuries can be prevented, trains its members to develop expertise in the field, and provides a communication network for its members.
We campaign relentlessly for redress in the legal system. Through persistent lobbying and legal battles, for example, the discount rate, which calculates how much should be deducted from a lump sum of damages so a claimant does not receive more compensation than he should, was changed for the first time in 16 years. What is important here is that people are able to receive the right compensation to meet their needs when they have been catastrophically injured. The mechanism for making sure this happens has not worked for many years. Unfortunately, our fight is not yet over as the Government is, at the time of writing, reviewing the process of calculating the rate.
Cold calling for personal injury claims is another area in which we have pushed for change. The association has long called for a ban of all cold calls for personal injury claims as they are tasteless and intrusive. They generate the false perception that obtaining compensation for whiplash and other injuries is easy, even when there is no injury. It brings the whole sector into disrepute. An amendment to ban these calls has now been proposed by the Government to be added to the Financial Guidance and Claims Bill.
High standards are essential to ensure injured people receive the best possible service from their lawyer. All APIL members subscribe to a code of conduct and consumer charter, to reassure people about the service they can expect from our members. An accreditation scheme for APIL members was established in 1999. To be accredited, they must satisfy specific and extensive criteria providing evidence of their competency and experience in handling personal injury claims.
Access to first rate experts is crucial to the service our members provide. Almost a thousand online expert witness searches are carried out by our members every month from APIL’s directory of experts. We have 596 experts in the directory, covering 300 categories including orthopaedics, health and safety, and psychiatry.
The association runs its own programme of training events, conferences and webinars nationwide for subjects ranging from advanced clinical negligence to military claims to help our members provide the best possible service for the injured people who need them. I am involved personally in delivering some of this training. Ensuring those who represent injured people have the most up to date and relevant skills possible complements all the other work APIL does to support the needs of injured people and their families.
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