January 2012

Cricket sponsorship

After their spectacular success at the home of English cricket, Premex is delighted to announce a further two year sponsorship of UK Village Cup Champions Woodhouses CC.

Last September in front of Sky TV Cameras, the Premex-sponsored village team from Oldham took victory against Rottingdean in the final of the UK Village Cup at Lords. Following on from this success, Premex has agreed a new two year sponsorship package with the club to help them onto even greater success.

Doug Sloan is part of the team and business development manager at Premex Group. "The financial support provided by our sponsors will be vital over the next two years, helping us to keep the club on a sound footing and allowing us to concentrate on playing well," he said. "This club has a fantastic history with a great crop of young players to follow in the footsteps of our famous alumni such as former England Captain Atherton and we're proud to be maintaining this tradition."

The club and its sponsors will be attending the 'Champions Celebration Dinner' on 29th February 2012 to celebrate and recognise all seven of Lancashire's champions throughout all forms of cricket in 2011. 

• Lancashire CCC as LV= County Champions. All the County squad will be in attendance along with:
• National Champions Lancashire U14s Boys and Lancashire U13s Girls
• National winners Lancashire Disability Incrediball squad and Lancashire Disability Hardball squad
• Winners of The Persimmon National Village Cup Woodhouses CC
• Winners of the National Last Man Stands Competition Team Manchester

Simon Margolis, chief executive of Premex Group said: "As a company we've always been strong supporters of local clubs and the dedication shown by everyone to reach this goal has been fantastic. I'm looking forward to watching wood houses' progress during 2012-13."

Straw bill hits final hurdle

Despite an agenda as quotable as an Oscar Wilde play, Jack Straw’s attempt to turn his ten minute rule motion on motor insurance into cast iron legislation proved too big an ask, even for this political giant. We review the story as it unfolded.

Premextra has followed the Motor Insurance Regulation Bill 2010-11 closely since it was first mooted on the floor of the House of Commons in September 2011. In a typically forthright speech, Jack Straw MP proposed the bill as a means of helping insurers reduce premiums by putting the brakes on referral fees and claims for whiplash injuries. However, the former Justice Minister also took a misguided swipe at the independent medical profession, against which he had no evidence of any influence toward the outcome of personal injury claims.

The proposals were then effectively taken 'on the road' throughout autumn 2011; first at the 'I Love Claims' event followed by Post Magazine's Motor Claims conference where his view was expressed that referral fees should in fact become a criminal offence and that he was "extremely confident" that his bill would be carried.

After Christmas, the Transport Select Committee's publication of the 'Cost of Motor Insurance fourth report of Session 2010-11' was timed perfectly to offer support for elements of the MIR Bill with the committee's chair Louise Ellman MP speaking at the All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance and Financial Services on 17^th January alongside Mr Straw. There she added that given his call for some sort of statutory change in the evidential burden for whiplash claims, that this "could be" on the Transport Committees agenda. "From the work that we did we could see the extent of the problem, but I don't think we had enough information as a committee and we didn't go very deeply into the medical issue, but that would not rule out looking at this in a broader way," she added.

Nigel Muers-Raby, Chairman of the Consumer Justice Alliance offered a dissenting opinion of Straw's ideas: "Raising the threshold at which whiplash claims can be brought is not the answer as it will affect innocent victims who have genuine claims for which they need and deserve proper compensation."

Time finally ran out on the MIR Bill on 20^th January, when Mr Straw conceded defeat but he appeared satisfied nevertheless in an interview with Insurance Age whom he told: "Of the four substantive clauses in my bill I have achieved agreement, to varying extents, on three of the four areas. The government is currently putting a ban on referral fees through Parliament, the Justice Minister Mr Djanogly told the Commons that the government intended to reduce the legal fees arising from use of the RTA portal; and the government has expressed serious concerns about the rising whiplash epidemic that I have helped highlight."

Premex will be presenting to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Insurance and Financial Services on 21^st February 2012.

Star spotting

The licensing of Alternative Business Structures from 3 January 2012 got the legal media acting like a welcoming party at an awards ceremony, hoping to spot any celebs approaching up the SRA’s red carpet. But were they satisfied with the guest list?

Ever since a liberalised legal services market was dubbed 'Tesco Law' it would appear the ideal name to join the list of ABS applicants would be one of the two Richards, Sir Branson or Tesco CEO Brasher. However it wasn't to be but the Lawyer, Legal Week, Gazette, Solicitors Journal et al have been spoiled by no less than 65 firms adding their names to the list.

These have included some interesting brands, not least Admiral Insurance Company and the Co-operative Legal Services; two names which have become synonymous with the topic over the years.   

Subsequently, the name of Quindell added itself to that list with the acquisition of Silverbeck Rymer and the purchase of an equity stake in Ai Claims, which represented one of the first deals to publicly reveal a vertically integrated approach to personal injury claims handling. Jim Rymer, chairman of Silverbeck Rymer, said: 'We see significant benefits in being part of the enlarged group. Quindell has a rapidly growing presence in the insurance space and we firmly believe in its non-conflict approach to working with insurers.'

As Premextra was going to press, a deal hatched down under stole the headlines with Australian firm Slater & Gordon announcing it had acquired Russell Jones & Walker for £53.8m.

Slater & Gordon became the first law firm ever to go public after listing on the Australia Stock Exchange five years ago. Managing director Andrew Grech said that while the UK had a similar legal jurisdiction to Australia, it had spent three years searching for the right opportunity in the UK.

He said: "In RJW we have found a great firm built on values which are very aligned with our own. The team at RJW gives us confidence that we have the right people on the ground with local knowledge to achieve our joint aspiration of being the first choice for personal legal services in the UK".