MoJ wants 'to weed out firms whose actions harmed customers'

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) says its Claims Management Regulation unit has closed down 200 rogue claims management firms – mainly those dealing with insurance and financial services claims.

The MoJ said it was determined “to weed out firms whose actions harmed customers, including ongoing work to cut unwanted cold-calling in person, by phone and by text message, and cracking down on misleading marketing, unfair upfront fees and ‘cash for crash’ frauds”.

Head of the unit Kevin Rousell said: “There are some that mislead people or carry out various kinds of malpractice, deliberately or otherwise, and we are working hard to ensure they either bring their practices in line, or stop altogether.”

In the worst cases, firms that had their authorisation cancelled were involved in fraud, while others were caught using misleading marketing and aggressive sales techniques.

The MoJ announced in August 2009 that the 100th firm had been stopped from trading.