Lawyers have urged their regulatory body to abandon plans to remove the ban preventing solicitors from making cold calls.
The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) has long called for a complete ban on cold calling for personal injury, which is currently in place for solicitors but not for claims management companies (CMCs).
APIL president, Neil Sugarman, has now called on the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) not to lift the ban on solicitors.
“Most solicitors would not dream of cold calling but we must legislate for those who would,” said Mr Sugarman.
“We are currently in the middle of an epidemic of cold calling for personal injury claims which exploits vulnerable people,” he went on. “It is tasteless and intrusive. It generates the false perception that obtaining compensation for injuries is easy, even when there is no injury. It brings our whole sector into disrepute, and people hate and condemn the practise.
Concern has arisen during consultation on reform of the SRA’s handbook and the omission from the new draft of the rule which dictates that solicitors “do not make unsolicited approaches in person or by telephone to members of the public in order to publicise your firm…”
“We at APIL have consistently called for CMCs to be banned from cold calling for personal injury, in order to raise the bar to reflect what – quite rightly - is expected of solicitors,” said Mr Sugarman.
“We need to do more – not less – to get rid of the scourge of cold calling for personal injury.”