ACSO's latest report focusses on the landscape of fraud in the legal services sector and makes numerous recommendations, most notably the establishment of a cross-sector successor body to the Insurance Fraud Taskforce (IFT).
ACSO has partnered with various stakeholders in delivering this report, all of whom have offered their vision of the fraud landscape and have helped contribute to specific consumer advice and top tips.
There have been and exist significant efforts to combat fraud. The IFT, for example, was set up in January 2015 to consider how best to tackle insurance fraud. The IFT produced a report in January 2016 making 26 recommendations to the insurance industry and wider stakeholders. A final update report was provided in 2017 identifying action taken in light of these recommendations. Since the work of the IFT was completed, however, there has been no successor body or further review for five years, despite this being one of the recommendations of the original report. Alongside this, cases of fraud have been increasing over recent years with the covid-19 pandemic causing a worrying increase in fraudulent activity.
Therefore, in light of the concerns raised throughout the report, ACSO has generated recommendations for the insurance and legal sector to consider. These include:
- Increased collaboration should be encouraged to monitor and discuss contemporary issues relating to fraud, particularly claims fraud;
- Working together, the cross-industry alliance should decide individually what information and/or action they require from other parties, before discussing this together and working on ways in which those needs can be met for the interest of all parties involved, including consumers;
- Consideration should be had of the relevant data sets held by the parties and decipher where data could be analysed and shared between them;
- Consumers must be made aware of fraud issues, how they could commit it, how they spot it, how they can help to prevent it; and,
- Parties should be alert to the key legal/regulatory framework and contribute to positive change via consultation reviews and engaging with policymakers where appropriate
Fraud is on the rise. Its impact may grow because of the current, global cost-of-living crisis and increased digitisation of the civil justice system. It is also a complex issue which requires an active, shared effort to tackle before further serious damage is done to damage the trust in and viability of the civil justice system.