Win, win, win - and win again

Well done Jack Straw for blowing the lid off a scam that some of us have known about and complained of for ages.

Most ordinary folk I talk to resent the notion that their own insurers should be quietly profiting from the sale of their data to enable unknown third parties to profit from their misfortune too. Seems a natural reaction.

So - insurers sell the claim and make hundreds of pounds a case. In the course of doing so they help to fuel what they collectively decry as 'compensation culture' and potentially increase the number and value of claims, which they then have to pay (subject to the usual tedious and despicable techniques to avoid and delay).

And the cost of claims rises.

Neat answer to the problem they have helped to create and/or exacerbate? Increase premia. Make the punters out of whom they are already secretly profiting pay for the downside of this grubby process.

Oh, and then blame claimant lawyers. 

Use that propaganda and false statistics to persuade gullible senior political figures who think the country has 'never had it so good' to pass legislation that makes it uneconomical for innocent victims to get decent representation and adequate compensation.

Tell claimants they can trust insurers to be fair (ha!) and pay what the claim is worth, that they won't get any more if they go to a lawyer.

Insist wherever possible that claimants use legal expenses insurers that are (ultimately) under the control of the companies who pay the claims - whose hand they will not bite or be allowed to bite.

Nirvana - sell the claims and make some money, get rid of hostile lawyers to keep compensation low, make victims bear more of the cost of using lawyers - and still charge the punter more on renewal. 

Win, win, win - and win again.

What a filthy trade.