Royal & Sun Alliance PLC - Insurers to the Law Society of Scotland and Crooked Lawyers, cut jobs to save money .. but for whom are the savings ?

If you would all like to know which company is the primary insurer of Scottish Lawyers - it is none other than the Royal and Sun Alliance PLC Insurance Company.

So, if you have ever tried to make a claim against a lawyer for negligence, seeking financial reparation, then it is this firm, along with the sinister Marsh UK, which decides, along with the Law Society of Scotland, of course, how long your claim is messed around, how they can obstruct your claim, how they can mess your life up and intimidate you, what information they can gather on you and how they can use it against you, from any agency or company they choose to contact (even the Police, Benefits Agency, Department of Work & Pensions, NHS, and more).

I`ve had cases put to me where the insurers have submitted false data to the Benefits Agency and Scottish Legal Aid Board to kill off a client`s case, even false statements passed to Police and the Scottish Executive over clients who have tried to sue lawyers ... just to make sure their case doesn`t progress. Another very troubling case which was one of the worst I had read, had the insurers using the clients medical records against them in an attempt reminiscent of Blackmail to kill off their claim against a crooked lawyer.

That`s quite some power for an Insurance company, isn`t it ? well ... since they also arrange insurance for Government Agencies, and of course no doubt, politicians, and plenty other arms of Government ... they have had a virtual carte blanche to do anything they please ... and they have done exactly that with regard to client claims against lawyers.
Marsh PLC ... of course, they are now infamous in the United States for being corrupt ... and have had to pay large fines over their corrupt market practices in the wake of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer`s case against Marsh, which you can read about from　BBC News, here : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4250842.stm

Why would a corrupt insurance company such as Marsh still be allowed to manage insurance schemes linked to and supporting the legal profession in the UK ? .. well ... a little bird told me there are a few politicians getting sweet deals on the back of these insurance arrangements ... so that would explain it ... remember - we are living in a pretty corrupt society these days here in the UK - where even the Prime Minister says its now ok to get loans for honours ... something that David Lloyd George might have not even dreamed of in using as his defence .. or maybe he would have ? after all .. Lloyd George was a solicitor too !
Anyway, The Herald newspaper is reporting that Royal & Sun Alliance are getting rid of 1000 staff.

What`s up ? are you having to pay more to clients of lawyers who have been ripped off ? well, the statistics don`t show that ... so, maybe it`s because some of your practices are now getting so much attention that you can`t milk the public so much ? ... more probably the case.

Well, I for one, have certainly been through the mill with Royal & Sun Alliance - they, along with Marsh UK, and the Law Society of Scotland conspired to fail my case against crooked lawyer Andrew Penman of Stormonth Darling Solicitors, Kelso, Scottish Borders.

They used Tods Murray and Simpson & Marwick against me - two equally crooked Edinburgh legal firms ... and made sure that the tiny offer of settlement I got, actually went to cover the legal costs of the discussions and the work of another equally crooked lawyer - David Reid, formerly of Morrisons Solicitors, Edinburgh and Campbell Snith Solicitors, Edinburgh.

So, in my opinion, the Royal & Sun Alliance are getting what they deserve and for what they have done to clients of crooked lawyers in the UK, they should be chased out of business.

However, the prospect of some of the staff feeling threatened by the cuts might be a good thing for those of us who investigate the crooked financial web set up by the Law Society of Scotland to defend it`s members from financial claims. Maybe a few leaks of files will come my way again ... so there may well me a silver lining to the story after all. All case files of claims against Scottish lawyers and papers most welcome, you know my email !

I hope all you readers are paying attention to this ... because if you ever try or have tried to claim compensation against a crooked lawyer in the UK ... you will have had the RSA on your back, which is a shade worse than having the devil on your back I think.

Peter Cherbi`s advice ? - you should be thinking about starting a consumer boycott of this insurance company - and let everyone know just how crooked and corrupt the RSA and their partners Marsh are when it comes to claims against the legal profession.

Link to the Herald article on the cutbacks at Royal & Sun Alliance : http://www.theherald.co.uk/business/64359.html

Royal & Sun staff braced for cuts
PAUL ROGERSON June 20 2006

Five hundred staff at Royal & Sun Alliance in Glasgow face an uncertain future after the insurer announced plans to cut 1000 jobs across the UK.
Compulsory redundancies appear inevitable as the company seeks to slash costs by ￡130m by mid-2008.

The FTSE-100 company disclosed yesterday that it will cut 1550 jobs worldwide. In the UK, where Royal employs 10,000 staff across more than 20 offices, the reductions will be split between the group's claims, retail and broker businesses.

Royal's Glasgow operation at 200 St Vincent Street, the sole Scottish site, employs 500 in broker, claims and support roles.

Asked if the cuts will affect Glasgow, a spokeswoman indicated that they will be spread evenly across the UK business, but said it was too early to be specific.

"We are anticipating that all parts of the business will be affected in some way," she added. The company hopes that compulsory job losses will be kept to fewer than half of the total through natural wastage and redeployment over the next two years.

The insurer, which employs 23,000 in 27 countries, said 350 positions will be culled in Scandinavia, where it has a large presence, along with 160 across its other international operations.

The remaining 40 jobs will be cut from its Sussex head office. Royal is consulting with unions in the UK and in Scandinavia.

The job cuts are part of the company's plan to shrink its expense ratio in the UK and Scandinavia to below 15%.

That represents about 9% of the 2005 cost base and will cost around ￡100m. However, the measures will be self-funding and will not reduce profits, the company said.

"It's a necessary step, because (Royal's) expense ratios are higher than some of their competitors, so it had to do something about them. This is a step in the right direction," said Youssef Ziai, an analyst with Williams de Broe.

The announcement came just a month after Royal posted a better-than-expected 29% rise in first-quarter profits to ￡207m.

It also follows a three-year restructuring programme that saved the company ￡270m and included the loss of around 1100 jobs in the UK when Royal shifted call centre work to India in 2004.

Shares in Royal, which is the second-largest commercial insurer in the UK and the third-largest personal motor and household insurer, closed 3.5p higher at 126.5p.

Royal also announced yesterday that its Scandinavian subsidiary is to buy out the minority portion of its Latvian and Lithuanian businesses for ￡53m. The company intends to enter the Estonian market in early 2007.