Hampson Hughes increases client inducements

Hampson Hughes has increased the amount it offers claimants to use its services by £500, only a few months after large parts of the claims sector criticised the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for not banning the advertisement of inducements.

The firm will now pay clients £2000 if they meet certain terms and conditions, including clients attending a medical examination and liability being admitted by a third-party insurer.

“There is no evidence to suggest that incentives have an adverse effect on clients or encourage spurious claims to be made. Firms that offer incentives have strict terms and conditions that must be met before incentives are given. This means that they are only offered to victims of genuine accidents,” Paul Hampson, the firm's joint managing partner, told Legal Futures.

Hampson also said that it was often only clients facing exceptional hardship that requested incentives.

"This can assist with anything from funding for private medical treatment to aid their recovery to covering the cost of essentials such as rent, utilities and food if they have had to take time off work and suffered loss of earnings as a result of the accident," he said.
 

In answer to critics of inducements, Hampson said that there were sound commercial reasons for offering incentives for the firm.

“The profession needs to realise that given the changing nature of legal services post LASPO, more non-legal bodies will enter the profession and introduce a more commercial element to personal injury law. ABS firms with big marketing budgets entering the market will sadly see smaller practices cease trading. Commercialism is here to stay,” he said.  

Mark Dugdale