More than 25,000 complaints were made about personal injury cold calling last year, new figures reveal.
As the House of Commons debates The Financial Guidance and Claims Bill on Monday (22 January) lawyers have urged MPs to call on the Government to stand by its promise, made in a previous debate on this Bill, to ban cold calling by claims management companies.
According to figures from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) the number of complaints about cold calls and texts for personal injury claims dwarfs the number of complaints for PPI and pension cold calls. Last year 5,883 cold calls were reported about PPI claims and just 521 calls about pensions were reported.
“Cold calls are incredibly frustrating and they give the false impression that claiming money for compensation is easy,” said Brett Dixon, president of The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL). “This in turn encourages frivolous and fraudulent claims. And this really is just the tip of the iceberg. These figures only cover the cold calls and texts that are reported, which is just a fraction of all personal injury cold calls*.”
“The Government must introduce this ban in the Financial Guidance and Claims Bill now. It is the best opportunity finally to stop claims management companies from harassing all of us and encouraging false claims,” said Mr Dixon.