Lawyers blamed for high insurance costs

SOLICITORS and barristers are blamed more for high insurance premiums than the insurance firms themselves, according to new research.

The survey also shows that one in five people would consider inventing or inflating a claim if they could get away with it. But three in five people also feel that the level of awards in personal injury claims is too high and

two-thirds believe that people do make fraudulent insurance claims.

The survey, carried out by the Irish Insurance Federation (IIF), shows that lawyers are thought to be the single most important contributors to high insurance premiums, just ahead of insurance companies and the courts.

The people making the claims themselves and the Government are thought to be much less responsible.

But four out of five people believe the new system, where claims are dealt with outside of court with no lawyers involved, will reduce insurance claim costs. Yet, half of the respondents had not yet heard of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board or known of its potential impact. The survey of 1,200 people, conducted by Lansdowne Market Research, shows that the majority of people believed the Government could do the most to reduce the legal costs associated with insurance claims. Three-quarters of people said car insurance was too expensive and half said home insurance was too expensive.

Almost 70% of people said that car insurance was high because of payouts and three-quarters of people believed there should be a specific crime of

insurance fraud.

IIF chief executive Michael Kemp said the results showed that the issue of insurance was important in the public mind. There is a responsibility on all of us to work for reductions in the cost of claims in order to control insurance premiums,” Mr Kemp said.