Sir, – I was until retirement a solicitor in Belfast specialising in the defence of claims for personal injury, that is, I acted for insurance companies. I have some knowledge of this area.
It has been known for generations that your judges, lawyers that is, have made compensation awards significantly higher than those in Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Why this is the case has never been clear. I have always suspected that it was having a dig at the City of London where insurance is run.
Insurance companies are not an arm of the state. They are public limited companies answerable to shareholders. They are not in business to make a loss. If they do not make a healthy profit they go out of business. It happens. Insurance companies can and do get reserves wrong and, as a consequence, go into administration.
The awards are set by judges who therefore control this market in very large measure. Legal costs tend to follow the level of awards. Judges come up from the legal profession which is also an industry in the private sector and is a body very largely self controlled.
Insurance companies can leave the market place. Lawyers cannot.
The only way to sort out this crisis is to curtail the level of awards which will bring insurance companies back into the market. – Yours, etc,
DAVID McCARTER,
Hillsborough,
Co Down.