Slater and Gordon says its RTA case numbers will be less than expected in 2016, as it defends Quindell legal services purchase

Slater and Gordon has admitted that it will take on less personal injury cases in 2016 than it expected to when it purchased Quindell’s legal services division.

Speaking at the law firm’s AGM in Australia, group managing director Andrew Grech said that the turnaround necessary to see the acquisition, which has been renamed Slater Gordon Solutions (SGS), “reach its potential” had been demanding. He said that the firm now expected its RTA case resolution numbers for next year to approximately 70,000, compared to 77,000 previously. He also said that he expected to limit RTA case intake to 73,000, a considerable drop from an earlier estimate of 95,000.

The two main reasons for the drop, explained Grech, were that the firm had decided to focus on quality cases and the end of a contract with insurance broker Swinton, which had brought in 6,000 cases.

“This has led us to make a decision to change the legacy intake strategy by not accepting clients more than 12 months after the date of accident unless there are some specific extenuating circumstances, such as seriousness of injury,” he said.

He also revealed that its 2015 numbers had been impacted by a lower percentage of resolved claims in the Portal and MedCo’s introduction, which had delayed initial medical report production.

However, Grech said that Slater and Gordon was making good progress with SGS.

“Notwithstanding the challenges, nothing we have seen dissuades us from our view that the underlying businesses are strong and in combination offer a unique client value proposition in the UK market.”

The firm expects to see 40-50% of its NIHL case portfolio to be resolved, while it said that it remained bullish about the future for Mobile Doctors, SGS Health Services, and the rehabilitation service, Overland Health.

Mark Dugdale