No win no fee firm's workers absorbed by Rozenberg article

There's been a bit of a debate in the office among the no win, no fee writers here, following an article that popped up in the Telegraph about tribalism in personal injury lawyers.

Written by the paper's online legal editor, Joshua Rozenberg, the piece introduces its readers to a black-tie award ceremony that had invited lawyers from both sides of the personal injury claim process. Unlike the civilised atmosphere that one might expect from a gathering of legal professionals in their finest bib and tucker, it was beset by protesters outside and barracking inside.

The issue that led to this unrest was the shortlisting of a defence solicitor who had scored a big win regarding pleural plaques for the insurance industry, which meant that they ceased to deserve compensation under English law.

The conversation here circled around the same sort of issues as the author explores in his article; among our asbestos compensation workers some are, naturally, of the opinion that a diagnosis of pleural plaques can be traumatic and deserving of support, and the idea of someone fighting to deprive deserving victims of disease by protecting faceless corporations runs directly counter to that. It means that the thought of someone succeeding in that, and getting a prize for it, rubs these colleagues up the wrong way - if the defence solicitor had won his section, we'd have had weeks of exasperation, I think.

But other colleagues are trying to be stoic and forgiving about it, pointing out that a good opposition makes them better personal injury solicitors. One pointed out the end of the article, where the author writes, "There are two reasons why solicitors should have experience of working for both sides in personal injury claims. One is pragmatic: they will be better at their job if they understand the other side's position. And the other is principled: our adversarial system of justice relies on both sides of a claim being properly argued."

Another worker just made jokes about types of tattoos - there's always one. Apart from him, though, its effect is interesting, leading everyone to aspire even higher than we already reach; the people who disagree with Rozenberg's argument that the defence solicitor's work was honourable, principled and skilful want to outdo that achievement, and the ones who agree want to use it as a spur to further achievement.

Although it still hasn't been what you might call settled - I can see it's going to be a conversation that will be returned to over the coming weeks - it doesn't seem to matter that it hasn't. Either way, it's a discussion that's spurred on everyone in the no win, no fee compensation claim department, even mere copywriters like me.

Can I claim?