The government and the nation’s insurance industry need to face the facts when it comes to the responsibilities they have towards the injured, according to the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers.
Incoming April president of the APIL, Karl Tonks, said that the legal system has a responsibility to deliver fair personal injury compensation to those who are entitled to the same. Insurers that act to delay a valid accident claim are incurring unnecessary legal costs that can delay the sometimes desperately needed compensation awards for those injured through no fault of their own, Mr Tonks added.
The new APIL president described the insurance industry as suffering from a ‘terrible dysfunction,’ especially as insurers will not only pass along these exorbitant legal costs to their customers by rising their premium prices, but will also bar those who suffer from industrial and work-related ailments from claiming compensation because it is impossible for these individuals to trace down the insurers of the companies that saw them injured.
Stating that the path to damages for all too many injured individuals ‘is littered with broken promises,’ Mr Tonks called upon the government and the insurance industry to institute ‘a fund of last resort’ in order to provide compensation for those without recourse under the current legislative system. The injured need to be treated better than statistics, the president also said, throwing down the gauntlet to the government to broaden its horizons from simply listening to the insurance industry and big business.
Listen to those who are slowly losing their lives to an asbestos-related illness or to the surviving family members who lost a love one to a personal injury at work, Mr Tonks said. These people deserve the ear of the government as much as its most ardent – and wealthy – supporters, the president asserted.