Have you or a family member recently been in a car accident?
You may receive an unsolicited phone call asking whether you have recently been involved in a car accident (whether or not you were).
These phone calls come from third party cold-callers, referred to as ‘claim farmers’.
Claim farmers make directed and random phone calls to people to find out whether they have been involved in a car accident, and if so, whether they suffered any injuries.
Claim farmers pressure people to make a claim, which is then ‘sold’ to a solicitor for a fee.
Claim farming has the effect of increasing clients’ expectations around low-value claims with poor prospects, increasing solicitors’ fees to cover the expense of purchasing the claim from the claim farmer, and increasing the cost of running the various compensation schemes having to deal with unmeritorious claims.
Such conduct is illegal in Queensland and can result in severe sanctions to the solicitor who accepts the referral. Anti claim farming legislation applies to car accidents and has just been introduced to expand to other types of claims.
You should not accept any referral to a solicitor from a claim farmer. You may become caught in a web and have to give evidence about how the claim was initiated and waste your time with false promises and misinformation.
If you are injured in a car accident, you should undertake your own enquiries or rely on trusted friends or people whose opinions you respect, to refer you to reputable solicitors who have your best interests at heart.
