The legislative councillor of the functional constituency (insurance) said syndicates of solicitors and recovery agents have conjured up many fraudulent personal injury claims which led to huge loss of the insurance companies.
This piece of news reminded me of a recent case that a solicitor was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment and a recovery agent to 16 months' imprisonment, regarding their violation of statute related to "Champety and Maintenance". What a heavy penalty.
So many countries have abolished the law on "Champety and Maintenance", which is globally seen as obsolete. US is the most extreme example. Under the "no success no fee" arrangement, solicitors are touted as "sharks", since where the blood appears, the swarm of "sharks" arrives at once. As such, vexatious litigation is an ordinary noun to the US people.
We Hong Kongers are in the other end of the spectrum. Under the influence of "River Crab" culture of the Mainland, we do not want to "enter the court while alive, go to hell while dead". And proletarians here are usually not familiar with their legal rights. So, it is very arguable whether justice has been done if those sufferers, because of the "River Crab" or lacking legal knowledge, do not sue those insurance companies for compensation. On the contrary, by the aid of "sharks", who are motivated to render their best service by the proportionate portion of damages to be shared, sufferers could not be said as less beneficial than by sitting alone helplessly.
To me, this old law should be superseded by modern ones asap. The main focus should be on the ratio of distribution of damages among claimant, solicitors and recovery agent, once they won the litigation.
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