Why claims management firms who target police make our world more dangerous

Claims management companies feed at the bottom of a sea of greed and take much-needed funds away from the police

What’s the worst job in the world? Removing fatbergs from sewers would be bad. How about ratcatching? That sounds grim. Being Donald Trump’s hairdresser could be even worse. Or you could work in claims management.

Last week I received an unsolicited email with ‘police misconduct’ in the subject line. It came from a claims management company specialising in that area of ‘expertise’. If I had been mistreated by the police, they wanted to inform me that, with their assistance, I could be eligible for thousands of pounds in cash. This, they said, would be compensation “for your suffering”.

The police aren’t saints, they are human and should be subject to the same scrutiny as the rest of us. When they are bent, unscrupulous or criminal, they should and do face the full force of the law. We’ve all seen Line of Duty.

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Most police officers join the force because they want to make their communities better and safer places (Picture: Andrew Milligan) | PA

Making a difference

However they also do an incredibly difficult job. From telling a parent their child has been killed to facing down a maniac with a knife, they tackle the tasks that need to be done but the rest of us prefer to avoid.

Most do it because they want to make a difference to their community – to make it a better, safer place. That involves split-second decisions in complex situations, all within the law. When their judgment or behaviour is wrong, they face consequences. Last year 7,000 complaints from the public were received and investigated in Scotland.

We all have our own experiences in life but personally and professionally, all my dealings with the police have all been positive. Every officer I’ve encountered has been courteous and good at their job.

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I can’t say the same for claims management companies. Often they inhabit a murky world too messy for lawyers to contemplate. They feed at the bottom of the sea of greed and trawl for cases to refer onwards to solicitors in exchange for a finder’s fee.

The email they sent me suggested claims they can handle include data breaches, wrongful arrest, abuses of power and unlawful entry. The success rate isn’t mentioned but where a case does win in court the lawyers can take up to 50 per cent of any damages awarded. And who pays for all this? We do.

Avarice and dishonesty

Policing budgets are already under pressure with the Scottish Police Federation’s chair warning last year that lack of investment had left areas of the country with “an almost invisible policing presence”. From those already scant resources comes the cash to defend spurious, cooked-up compensation claims.

Some may be genuine but there is an official mechanism available to complain about police actions and seek financial redress. Others will stem from avarice, malice and dishonesty and they are the ones most likely to end up in a third party’s hands.

Interestingly, the firm that reached out to me claimed to be ranked number one for their work. What I think they meant is that they have one-star ratings on a main review site with one user saying they are “the embodiment of everything that is wrong with society today”. He went on to suggest they “go and make a decent, honest living, instead of preying on the public and clogging the overrun and farcical circus that is the UK legal system”.

I couldn’t have put it better myself.