The practice of insurance companies directly approaching people who have been injured in accidents and trying to settle them quickly before they see attorneys is known in England as “third party capture”. It is also known as “third party assistance” and the goal of insurance companies in such cases is to assist the victim without the victim seeing an attorney. Insurance companies will obviously say that they don’t understand why there should be any fuss about this, and that it is a low cost system.

The President of APIL in England said, “It is fundamentally wrong that an insurer can approach an injured person with a cheque without that person being given any independent advice. There is a blatant conflict of interest.” The Road Accident Fund in South Africa is beginning to approach claimants directly, and claimants should be very careful because once again there is an absolute blatant conflict of interest and the Road Accident Fund cannot play both roles.