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09 October 2015 / Theo Richardson-Gool
Issue: 7671 / Categories: Opinion , Personal injury
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The Medco experiment

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Curtailing RTA fraud is important, but the solution is not MedCo, as Theo Richardson-Gool explains

Since early April practitioners have had to use the Medco portal for experts and medical agencies for all soft tissue injury claims entering the Road Traffic Accidents Portal. MedCo was introduced as part of the plans to clamp down on fraudulent claims, signaling a stated commitment by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to end the era of “questionable whiplash claims by making sure all medical reports are above suspicion”.

The MedCo portal offers the user the option of instructing a “Direct Medical Expert” or “Medical Reporting Organisation” (MROs), both of which require some initial information to be input into the portal which then produces a randomised list of experts and MROs. This “Direct Medical Expert search” displays the results of seven independent medical experts within a 5 to 30 mile radius of the injured party, but does not display the experts’ CVs nor show all of the locations where the experts have medical appointments or even the days and times of

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Arc Pensions Law—Matthew Swynnerton

Arc Pensions Law—Matthew Swynnerton

Chair of the Association of Pension Lawyers joins as partner

Ampa Group—Kamal Chauhan

Ampa Group—Kamal Chauhan

Group names Shakespeare Martineau partner head of Sheffield office

Blake Morgan—four promotions

Blake Morgan—four promotions

Four legal directors promoted to partner across UK offices

NEWS

The abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC

Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
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