How To Deal With Car Accident Claims Cold Callers
Published: 2nd July 2015
If you’ve had a car crash in the past few years, you’ve probably been pestered by cold callers offering some kind of claims service. Strangely, if you haven’t had any type of road traffic accident you may well have endured the same frustrating experience!
Despite government efforts to clamp down on unsolicited marketing calls, the annoyance caused by cold calling remains a real issue in a range of industries. Many of the calls are nothing more than attempts at fraud, while even those on behalf of companies offering genuine services can be an infuriating waste of time for the people who answer.
At Liddy’s Solicitors, we don’t use cold calls for three reasons; they annoy people, they target people who may be feeling vulnerable after an accident, and we don’t think that an unsolicited phone call is a good basis on which to choose a personal injury lawyer to handle your case.
As with all good firms of solicitors, we largely rely on our local reputation and recommendations from clients to secure work. As such, we have some doubts about claims firms that try to generate work by pestering people with cold calls.
However, we do have some advice for dealing with the callers.
Cold calls from genuine companies
Some claims management firms use cold calls in an attempt to generate new business. In many cases the calls and text messages are little more than a fishing expedition, but in others the companies are able to target people who have actually been involved in a road traffic accident.
Police and insurers are not allowed to sell personal data to claims firms or lawyers, but it is not unknown for information about accidents to be obtained illegally or from sources such as bodyshops.
If you find yourself being pestered by numerous calls after an accident and suspect that the company gained your personal information illegally, you could report the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office. It is also worth registering with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), as this will cut the number of calls you receive from UK-based companies.
However they got hold of your information, it is worth remembering that any type of damages claim is a complex situ