Hull City Councillor Martin Mancey: Compensation payouts could have been spent fixing potholes
A SENIOR city councillor has hit out at what he calls a "spurious" claims culture after revealing £611,816 has been paid out in compensation to those injured on Hull's streets last year.
Councillor Martin Mancey says the amount the highways department paid out in 2012-13 – a 60 per cent increase on the previous financial year – could have been spent on improving the city's pothole-riddled roads.
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scourge of the motorist: A pothole on the slip-road off Clive Sullivan Way on to Madeley Street, Hull. Picture: Rob Stebbing
In 2011-12, the local authority's Highways department paid out £381,295 in compensation claims.
Cllr Mancey, portfolio holder for transport, said: "We live in a claims culture – and we seem to be going down the same path as America.
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"I would put these 'no win, no fee' law firms in the same immoral category as payday loan companies.
"We are paying out £400,000, £500,000, £600,000-plus in claims each year – that's money we cannot spend on repairing roads."
Cllr Mancey says he believes law firms now actively encourage those involved in accidents to claim for compensation.
"I have experience of this," he said. "I was involved in a minor road accident and somehow a personal injury law firm found out about it and contacted me.
"The company attempted to persuade me to make a claim, which of course I didn't.
"Clearly, there are genuine cases, where people have become incapacitated as a result of a serious accident.
"But there are, in my opinion, an awful lot of spurious claims.
"People really need to take some responsibility for their own actions.
"Occasionally, accidents happen but, often, it seems someone has to be blamed."
In response to Cllr Mancey's claims, Hull firm Rapid Solicitors, says it believes Cllr Mancey is deflecting blame for a lack of investment in measures to safeguard the public.
In a statement, the law firm said: "As one of the largest personal injury firms in the country and based solely in Hull, we are surprised Councillor Mancey has not contacted us to see the lengths to which we go to eliminate spurious claims.
"We do not get paid if a case has no merits and is lost so it's in our interests to weed out bogus claims very early.
"We do not, and never have, 'cold-called' any client and I welcome the Government's forthcoming ban on referral fees paid to 'non-lawyer' introducers, which should eliminate this tactic.
"Once more, the lawyers seem to be an easy target to deflect attention from the issue of apparent under-investment in public safety.
"Maybe if he met some of our injured clients to see how their lives have been affected and the lengths to which we go to help them, his view of this industry might change.
"Broad-brush comments are an insult to genuine victims who deserve and need compensation to help them.
"It would be a very dangerous place to live if this legal right was denied."
5 Comments
by AG-OldTown
Wednesday, March 13 2013, 1:29PM
“I agree with ColonelKurtz in regards to maintain the roads in the first place and use companies that can do a proper job of fixing them than the cheapest companies that Hull use and then have to get them to come and redo the road again as it is falling apart 2 weeks after they finish it. Some of the pot holes are rediculous and have been there for years but still no one comes to fix them. I bet the people that controll the fixing of the roads have pot hole free roads where they live. The goverment are trying to get people to drive smaller cars these days which i have now done but when you hit these pot holes with a small car it is twice as bad.”
by PJ_Maybe
Wednesday, March 13 2013, 1:07PM
“It's not the the claims that are a problem it's the level of compensation that is paid out after a successful claim. If people were compensated for what they had lost I bet there would be far fewer people who would bother to claim in the first place. People are tempted by the prospect of being able to profit from a claim and make some easy cash.
No-one should be able to profit from a compensation claim. It should be there just for what it is for - to compensate you for your losses.”
by dontwo
Wednesday, March 13 2013, 9:59AM
“Many years ago rumour had it that some unscrupulous councils left potholes as long as possible, or filled them with cheap materials, because some bright sparks had done their homework and discovered it was cheaper to take a gamble in paying compensation to the occasional claim.
Remember back then if you was a victim of a council or a companies negligence that before these no win no fee companies, it would cost a fortune just to consult a solicitor to take on the "big boys".”
by ColonelKurtz
Wednesday, March 13 2013, 9:21AM
“My state the obvious comment of the day:
Maintain the roads in the first place and you will reduce the claims.
And I would guess there are many other claims that are non-pothole and non-road related and are also 'spurious'.
I await Mr Mancey's 'evidence' of these spurious claims, as without any this is a non-story and just someone's opinion.”
by john0906
Wednesday, March 13 2013, 8:40AM
“I don't want to hear excuses about the state of our roads; the council have a duty to keep them in serviceable order.
However I have been contacted on my mobile offering me £3,500 for compensation in relation to the accident I had. I asked what accident as I have not had one? They put the phone down on me. Parasites spring to mind.”