Master Policy favourites Brechin Tindal Oatts hire another partner for insurers representation team

LEGAL firm Brechin Tindal Oatts  (bto), with offices in Glasgow & Edinburgh have added another partner to their team representing insurers, professional defence unions such as the Medical Defence Union, & other vested interests.

Seonaid Busby, who joined the team on 23 July 2012 from Biggart Baillie, will work closely with Partner and Solicitor Advocate Stephen Bryceland dealing with motor, employers’ liability and public liability personal injury claims.  Along with Stephen, Seonaid will be responsible for supervising a large team who deal with higher volume, lower value claims.

Ms Busby has specialised in insurance litigation for the most part of her career focusing on defender reparation cases in both the Sheriff Court and Court of Session. She is vastly experienced in dealing with employers’ liability, public liability, road traffic accidents and occupational disease claims. 

Bill Speirs, head of bto’s Insurers’ Representation team, said: “Seonaid is a valuable addition to bto’s team of over 50 insurance professionals. She brings experience of both pursuer and defender work and exposure to a range of stakeholders in the insurance sector. Her in-depth knowledge of the insurance market and her supervisory skills will further enhance the offering provided by Stephen’s team focusing on economy for volume claims".

“Recognising the importance of economy and efficiency in dealing with such matters, our bespoke team provides a first rate service to insurers specifically targeted at early settlement and minimising costs in litigated claims.  Stephen Bryceland’s role as Solicitor Advocate is an essential and effective way of avoiding unnecessary cost in the increasing number of Court of Session actions raised for minor or low-value claims.”

The appointment takes bto's partner strength to 35. Its Glasgow and Edinburgh offices have a total of over 170 staff.

Brechin Tindal Oatts are also Master Policy Panel solicitors, providing defence to solicitors (you mean ‘crooked’ – Ed) accused of negligence and other wrongdoing covered by the Master Policy. The firm also receives instructions from professional defence unions such as the Medical Protection Society and the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland in connection with legal actions against doctors & other medical services personnel.

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Scandal of lawyers caught in insurance fraud kickbacks spread to Scotland

It was recently reported in the Times newspaper that several firms of solicitors south of the border are being investigated alongside many claims handling companies for alleged insurance fraud ...

Rumours now circulating in the Scots legal fraternity claim many of our 'top notch' legal firms have been receiving insurance kickbacks for years .. one 'well respected' Edinburgh solicitor who was named to a Scottish reporter, is claimed to have been in tow with several insurance companies for years .. possibly accounting for the 9 cars he owns, together with four houses ...

The Times reports :

Solicitors face inquiry over insurance fraud kickbacks

Frances Gibb, Legal Editor

Ten solicitors’ firms are being investigated with dozens of accident claims-handling companies for alleged insurance fraud.

The investigation, reported in the Solicitors’ Journaltoday, is being undertaken by the Insurance Fraud Bureau.

The alleged frauds involve law firms paying kickbacks to claims-handling companies for work. This is legal if it is open and transparent, but some of the claims turn out to be fraudulent.

Law firms may be unaware that the claims being made are fraudulent but could still be guilty, according to the Insurance Fraud Bureau. Sue Jones, head of unit at the bureau, is urging partners of law firms to keep accurate records of clients and cases referred to them by claims management firms.

“If you’ve paid a referral fee to a claims management company and you end up taking money into your client account from a fraudulent claim, then you could be facilitating that fraud.”

If insurers were saying consistently that they did not believe an accident took place, solicitors should review the claim, she said.

British soldiers to be charged insurance payments for entering war zones.

Joining up to fight for one's country has never been so commersialised, with revelations leaking of documents from the Ministry of Defence, showing that an insurance scheme known as "Pax" , run by AIG, is officially recommended to soldiers before they go to war zones ...

Fighting for your country or the insurance industry ?

The Sunday Times reports :

Troops face £1,000 life cover bill

Michael Smith

BRITISH soldiers going to war are to be charged private insurance premiums of up to £1,000 to make up for inadequate government compensation for death or injury.

The effective doubling of premiums is revealed in a leaked Ministry of Defence (MoD) document. The insurance scheme, known as Pax, is run by AIG, the insurance giant, and is officially recommended to soldiers before they go to the battlefield.

In the document, the MoD blames the increase in premiums on the high casualty rate in Afghanistan and Iraq. They say that a surge in payouts has wiped out the scheme’s profits.

The MoD’s own compensation scheme is limited. A soldier who loses the sight of an eye receives only £28,750 from the MoD – but those with full private insurance get £150,000. The MoD pays £115,000 for the loss of a leg or an arm, but those on Pax receive £300,000.

Liam Fox, shadow defence secretary, said the hike in rates represented a breach of the covenant between soldiers and the country: “They are being asked to put their lives at risk, to ask them to pay to do it is an insult.” One lieutenant-colonel, who asked not to be named, said: “Young soldiers on little more than a grand a month after tax are having to buy insurance simply because the compensation that the MoD provides is so inadequate.”

Another officer said soldiers even have to insure their kit through Pax. “It is absolutely disgraceful that if a soldier loses a piece of his kit in theatre, he is charged for it and then has to claim the money back on insurance,” he said.

A total of 252 servicemen and women have died in Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001 and at least 561 have been wounded in action. Some 47 have suffered the loss or use of limbs or eyes.

Last month the armed forces compensation scheme was revamped after criticism that it was unfair. But in a letter written four days later, on October 15, the MoD effectively admitted that it remained inadequate.

Brigadier J H Gordon, the army’s director of personal services, wrote: “It is a command responsibility to ensure that our officers and soldiers are made aware of the need to provide adequately for their dependants.

“We need to remind our personnel of the various insurance products . . . and of the differences between these schemes and initiatives such as the armed forces compensation scheme.”

Nearly 58,000 members of the armed forces, a third of Britain’s troops, have taken out insurance with Pax.

Gordon warned that soldiers and officers face a double hit. Instead of taking out a policy to cover the six-month period of a typical tour of duty, they will have to pay for a minimum of 12 months. Monthly premiums will also rise by at least 30%.

A single soldier buying the maximum personal accident and life insurance would pay £279 for a six-month deal at present. The 30% increase would take it to nearly £363 for six months, but a minimum 12-month period would increase the cost to £725, a rise of 160%.

The increases would take the maximum payment for soldiers with family plans to £972 a year, Gordon said.

In the letter, he wrote that AIG had suffered “substantial losses . . . owing to the present level of combat injuries and deaths”.

Payouts to troops who had been wounded and to the families of those killed meant that “losses over the past year exceed the cumulative profits [on Pax cover] of the previous 10 years”.

Doug Young, chairman of the British Armed Forces Federation, said: “It’s too much for servicemen and women to have to pay . . . just for the privilege of going on an operational tour.”

The forces compensation scheme was revamped last month to ensure that soldiers with serious disabilities received the maximum payment of £285,000. The MoD acted in the face of public anger at the disclosure that Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson, who lost both legs when his Land Rover ran over a mine in Afghanistan, was offered just £152,150, little more than half the maximum payout and less than a third of the £484,000 awarded by the courts to an RAF typist who suffered repetitive strain injury to her thumb.

This weekend MoD officials said privately they were negotiating with AIG to drop the 12-month contract. But the 30% increase was seen as inevitable. AIG declined to comment.