The public are still being exploited by claims companies making a living out of accident victims, a Midland lawyer has warned.

Chris Stanley, a Consultant in the Litigation Department of MFG Solicitors, hit out as the Government announced yet another review of no win, no fee arrangements in England and Wales.

The study by senior academics will look at whether these are operating in the best interest of giving people access to justice.

Since the no win no fee regime was let loose on lawyers and public alike, claims companies have encouraged customers to take out insurance that covered them against the other side’s legal expenses if they lost their case.

Critics have said the policies were simply a way of extracting money.

According to Mr Stanley, not a lot has changed. Claims management companies are still advertising heavily on television and radio and still working the same insurance arrangement.

He said: “There are still lots of claims referral agencies out there. Do not ring if you see their number on the TV – the vast majority are not solicitors but insurers or claims companies with links to insurers”. Only once a policy was taken out would the matter be referred to a solicitor.

Mr Stanley acknowledged that there were some exceptions. When someone brought a case to him the first task was to decide whether there were reasonable chances of success and if so most firms who specialised in this type of work would run the claim on a no win no fee basis.