Paul has been campaigning for more than six years to persuade the FA to introduce a policy to protect players, and says it is only a matter of time before a county FA is dragged through the courts for providing inadequate cover to its players. 

“On the one hand the news that the FA is to introduce a nationwide scheme represents one of the biggest changes in the arrangements for player insurance in the history of the game. 

“In that sense it is great news. But they have not gone far enough and unfortunately there is still a genuine risk that some clubs will take out inadequate cover.” 

The FA’s national policy is being offered to clubs in two packages priced at £18 or £39 per club per season, but the cheaper option does not provide adequate cover for “player to player” injuries. 

Paul says “The truth is that the cheaper option just shouldn’t be included in this scheme. There will still be amateur players who could be unwittingly risking their entire futures — sometimes even their jobs and homes — every time they go out onto the park. 

“Sadly, I have dealt with more than 25 cases in recent years of players who find themselves in just that position. All of them should have received a minimum of £25,000 in compensation but ended up with nothing.” 

“There is now a strong case to argue that because the FA has given county’s and clubs a better option they would actually be failing their duty to protect the players if they allow some clubs to buythe cheaper, inadequate cover. 

“It’s a point that I am sure will be tested in the courts in the coming months. In my view this could and should have been avoided.” 

Paul is writing to all the county FAs to warn them of the potential for legal cases. 

Since launching his campaign for the FA to introduce a national policy in 2006, Paul has lobbied successive Sports Ministers, various MPs, as well as fellow sports lawyers and barristers. He has vowed to continue his fight, urging the FA and county FAs to make the situation clear to clubs. 

He says: “Ultimately, I want the FA to make the cover mandatory and ensure all players are adequately protected.” 

Mulderrigs www.mulderrigs.co.uk specialises in personal injury claims and is a member of the Law Society’s Personal Injury Panel ,as well as The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers. In 2011 it became one of the first in the region to be selected to a panel of legal experts approved by the brain injury association Headway. Mulderrigs has offices in Rossendale, Manchester and London and works throughout the UK.

In order to win the silver award, we faced an external assessment which looked in detail at leadership, managing performance, strategic planning, motivation and teamwork.

The Mulderrigs team

MD, Paul Mulderrig said: “We know that our team is our most valuable asset and we work hard to invest in it — in essence that means ensuring there are clear and effective frameworks for career progression and any opportunities are linked in with the firm’s business objectives.

“It’s also about ensuring our clients are well served by our staff and each member of our team understands their role in making this happen.

“Of course, having achieved the Investors in People Silver Award we are now aiming to go one better and go for Gold in the years ahead!”

So it may or may not surprise you to hear that the Guardian is now reporting that Mr Djanogly has failed  to declare his connection to Claims Management Companies.

Would you believe that Mr Djanogly’s children are shareholders in two “Claims Management Companies” owned by his brother-in-law. Amazin’ innit!

Now I know what Mulderrigs bring to the table when dealing with accident victims. The lawyers in my company are experts in Personal Injury law and over the years we have used our expertise to help thousands of accident victims recover compensation.

We have often stepped in and won major settlements for badly injured clients after other lawyers told them they had no case.

Sure, we advertise in the press and on the web, but despite all our advertising most clients come to us because they have been recommended by someone who used us in the past.

Everyone of our cases has to be proved to an exacting standards and we are up against top notch lawyers who are appointed by the insurance industry, and we are very proud of what we have achieved for many of our clients.

So we’ve got no truck with ill-informed  journalists and politicians who talk about “ambulance chasers” and “the compensation culture. What they should be doing is firing missiles at the “Claims Management” industry.

Lawyers are very closely regulated by the Solcititors Regulation – If we step out of line we would expect to get in trouble.

But  so-called “Claims Management Companies”….honestly, what do they add….what service do they offer. And why would any solicitor with an ounce of professional self-respect be buying cases from them?

The right thing for the Justice Secretary to do is regulate these people out of existence – Ban them advertising for claims and they”ll be left with nothing to sell to solicitors…..it’s not rocket science!

I wrote to  Lord Young last year telling him this shortly before he had to fall on his sword for his rather unfortunate  “never had it so good” views on the recession.

I suggested to Lord Young that the way to regulate the Personal Injury “market” is to ban claims management firms from advertising, and ban them from selling claims to solicitors. Would you believe I’m still waiting for a reply.

The solution is to restrict advertising to expert solicitors – those solicitors who have demonstrated a level of expertise…It would do away with “referral fees” at a stroke, and it would ensure that the publice end up in the care of a genuine expert.

But now we discover that the Justice Minister, the man charged with making the decision has his fingers in a”Claims Management” pie.

Honestly, if you submitted it as fiction a publisher would laugh at you!

Paul Mulderrig

Paul Mulderrig has welcomed government attempts to ban referral fees for insurance companies who pass on details of accident victims, but says the steps announced by the Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke don’t go far enough.

“I think the public will welcome the news that insurance companies such as Admiral will no longer be able to sell details of injured claimants. But what I would really like to see is a complete ban on so-called “claims management companies” being allowed to advertise,” says Paul who has worked in personal injury claims for more than 25 years.

“These people are not proper lawyers, they are simply marketeers with an eye to the main chance. Their business model seems to be to contact accident victims and then sell their details to the highest bidder.

“This proposed clampdown is a start, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. It does nothing to address the distasteful “claims industry” tactics of door-stepping, text messaging, cold calling or accosting people as they leave the supermarket.

“There’s really no need for these companies to exist at all, and it would solve most of the problems if the only people allowed to advertise for personal injury services were properly qualified and properly regulated solicitors.

“Mulderrigs have been involved in personal injury law for many years , but we have never paid for a referral and we never will!

“We give objective legal advice and our clients come direct to us, usually after a recommendation.

“The recent media reports have given a misleading impression that the whole dubious practice of payments for referrals will be outlawed by banning insurance company but the sad truth is that they are just the tip of the iceberg.”

Mulderrigs have a team of solicitors specialising in personal injury accident compensation claims, medical negligence claims and claims for professional negligence.

For the past 10 years we have received the Law Society’s Lexcel award for practice management standards which is awarded to solicitors who meet the highest management and customer care standards.  We are also also appointed to the panel of legal experts approved by the brain injury association, Headway.

Paul Mulderrig

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Picture shows:

Paul Mulderrig

Four of the Mulderrig offspring and many of my old friends attended BRGS, so I’ve always had a soft spot for the place.

Three or four years ago the head of the 6th Form, Trevor Elkington collared me and said he was keen to stage a law conference for the students. He told me that they’ve been doing a similar thing succesfully for several years for the wannabe-doctors, and wanted to stage an event for students who are considering studying Law at university.

The general idea of the event is to give the students a clear idea of the amount of hard work that goes into qualifying as a solicitor  or a barrister, and the remarkably high level of  “A” level success that’s now required  in order to get into a decent college.

There’s no point asking the students to listen to an old f&rt like me – we had black & white TV back when I qualified - so we got three past pupils who are currently studying Law at university, along with a trainee solicitor and trainee barrister. Each of them gave a short talk to the students about their difficult path into the profession, and then faced a barrage of questions.

The 6th Form students then presented a moot (a mock trial) invovling an alleged criminal assault. Students had been appointed to fill all of the roles – from court clerk & jury members through to prosecution & defence barristers – and  the quality of their presentation was just outstanding, a real credit to Mrs Reynard & Mrs Taylor who teach the Law course.

We also had another practical session – “What would you do if you were at Mulderrigs on work-experience and a guy walked in asking for advice about a serious accident?”  I came away from that session thinking you’d probably get better advice in the 6th Form than you would from me!

It’s remarkably difficult to find an initial opening into the legal profession these days, so it’s always feels great to be able to help out in any small way.  I got a massive buzz from working with these bright and enthusiastic young people…they were a real credit to BRGS, and I hope they’ll let me go back and do the whole thing again next year.

I’ve got absolutely no doubt that, out of the 30 people who attended the conference several will go on to great things in the legal profession……Some of the others might have to get proper jobs!

The Rays provide swiming facilities for people of all ages, and with all manner of special needs. You can probably imagine that it costs a few quid to run the club -  between £10-12,000/yr – and the club is entirely self-funded.

We have organised four bike rides over the last few years, including the classic Coast2Coast route, and a route along Hadrian’s Wall. We’ve raised a total of around £20,000.00 for the club over the four years.

This year twelve riders picked off a 170 mile section of the West Country Way from 13th to 15th May. We crossed Exmoor, the Quantocks and the Malverns before finishing in Bristol.

By our calculatiions, 12 riders at 170 miles each equals a total of over 2000 road miles, so we were mighty pleased to get out of it with no prangs, only 4 punctures and two messy adventures with the chain splitter!!

It’s not too late to support our fundraising effort, so  if you feel like donating a penny or two, here’s how….

Paul & Tom Mulderrig - Bristol 15.05.2011

Roger Eli in his Turf Moor heyday

Former professional footballer Roger Eli is backing a campaign which aims to persuade the FA to introduce a nationwide scheme of insurance to protect players who are badly injured by reckless challenges.

The campaign was launched by our M.D Paul Mulderrig who has been appalled by the lack of a safety net for players who suffer these injuries.

And the campaign has won the support of Eli, who starred in Burnley’s 4th Division championship-winning side in 1991 but later saw his own career cut short by serious injury.

“I was shocked to hear that players can suffer serious injuries from dangerous challenges and then discover that they can’t get compensation because there’s no insurance,” said Roger, who now runs a successful office supplies business in Yorkshire.

“My own playing career was cut short by injury, so I know at first hand what a devastating blow it can be for injured players. The crazy thing is that most players think they are covered, even though they’re not. After I finished playing I was a manager in non-League football for a couple of years and I just assumed that all my players would have been able to get compensation if they’d been badly injured by a reckless challenge.

“The financial consequences of suffering a broken leg or similar serious injury are massive, so I am completely behind Paul’s campaign to get the FA to introduce a nationwide scheme of insurance.”

Paul comes across lots examples of amateur players who have been injured during a game, because of reckless challenges.

Paul has specialised in football injury claims for over fifteen years and represents injured players across the country. He is a member of the Law Society’s Personal Injury Panel and the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers.

He began lobbying the FA four years ago, after uncovering an alarming number of cases where amateur players had suffered serious injuries but then found they couldn’t get compensation due to the lack of appropriate insurance cover on the offending player.

Paul added: “I know some sceptics say this is all part of the so-called “compensation culture” and  designed to make lawyers rich. But that’s just rubbish. People who say that have never sat down in the front room of a young player who has come home with his leg in pieces. These lads end up behind on their mortgage, rent and car payments, and are often unable to work for six or twelve months due to the seriousness of their injuries.

The FA can stop this in an instant — they need to act now!”

Paul is also a lifelong Burnley fan and a current season ticket holder at Turf Moor, so he was delighted to get the support of Roger, who is a genuine Clarets legend. 

Mulderrigs have  offices in Rossendale, Oldham and London.

This release courtesy of Tony Garner – Viva PR 01706 214340 07866 803954

This is what a player's broken leg looks like on the inside.

Chris Duncan (that’s his real name) is an amateur footballer from Hertfordshire.

Chris was injured during a game in April 2008. Chris will say that he had passed the ball and it was long gone when he was challenged heavily from behind.

The referee  issued a straight red card.

Chris suffered a badly broken leg  which had to be screwed back together during an operation and the metalwork is still in place. The x-rays are pretty horrible don’t you think? He was away from his work for months, and will have permanent symptoms.

Obviously, the court will have to decide what exactly happened and whether or not anyone was to blame…. But we have dealt with dozens of these cases and we believe he has very good grounds for claiming over £20,000.00 in compensation against the opposing player.

But here’s the problem……. The FA don’t insist on all clubs having proper insurance to  cover incidents where one player negligently injures another.

The result of all this:-

• Maybe Chris won’t get the compensation we believe he should receive. and/or
• Maybe the offending player will be left bankrupt by having to pay thousands in compensation and legal fees.

Either of those outcomes is completely unacceptable .

We have called on the FA for five years to introduce a nationwide insurance scheme that would protect both offending players and injured players alike. We repeat that call again today.

Chris asked us to write an open letter to the FA on his behalf and a copy of that letter is attached.  Chris Duncan letter to FA 

We’ll let you know how we get on.

After an accident, the insurers for the responsible party have a legal duty to investigate whether they can help with rehabilitation and/or treatment, and at Mulderrigs we have been very succesful at making sure insurance companies meet that obligation. 

In some cases it may involve just a few sessions of physiotherapy to help with recovery, but in other cases we often obtain very substantial payments from insurers to cover the cost of surgery that becomes necessary after an accident.

Mr Rishton is a young footballer from Norfolk who was badly injured as a result of a reckless challenge. We have just obtained an interim payment of £14,500.00 so that our can have an operation carried out privately by a top specialist, rather than waiting for months on an NHS waiting list.  (The name of our client has been changed).