The UK's Ministry of Justice are currently consulting on reduced fixed recoverable costs of just £500 for Personal Injury fast-track road traffic accidents.
This figure (which equates to a reduction of nearly 60% of the original £1,200 value) is likely to become law from April 2013.
PI Panic News of this, on top of the imminent referral fee ban, is creating widespread panic within the UK Personal Injury industry.
How can UK solicitor firms maintain the quality of their service (and their Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) compliance) with such a drastic reduction of income? Will it signal the end of PI in some firms? The Search for Replacement Income Firms in a spin should consider a simple solution with the following benefits:

• legitimate profits of on average £200 earned per medico-legal report [thus off-setting the reduced fixed recoverable cost (FRC) rate]
• costs kept to the bare minimum
• SRA Compliance improved (in fact it can be bullet- proofed!)

The Ramifications of Reduced Costs The severe cut-back on FRC will mean that many firms will be forced to employ a 'light touch' approach in order to minimize their costs.
This though, puts their SRA compliance at risk and could even open them up to claims of professional negligence.
Firms therefore are looking for a way to keep their costs to a minimum, maximise their profits and maintain (or improve) their SRA compliance.
It sounds like a tall order but the answer is surprisingly simple.
The Quick and Easy Solution Smart firms are seeing the benefit of setting up their own in-house medico-legal reporting agency.
The SRA has now clarified their position on this:

• It is perfectly acceptable in the eyes of the SRA for a solicitor firm to have a connection to an in-house agency that it refers instructions to.
  
• It does not contravene any SRA guidelines for such an agency to make a profit on these medico-legal reports.
  

An in-house agency generates legitimate profits and is also best-placed to provide the 'client-centred' approach that the SRA is looks for evidence of during inspections.
The benefits may be obvious, but some may still feel it's simply too much work to set up and run? Not at all! Firms who are daunted by the thought of setting up an agency can be reassured that with new cloud-based tools available, setting up an agency is as simple as registering a name and signing up to a suitable service.
Before you give up on PI, find out how online tools can help your firm off-set the loss of income from your fast-track RTA cases.