FOIL History

Back in 1992 a small group of frustrated Defendants' Solicitors met around a table and decided that it was about time those on the Insurers' side of the fence started to fight back. There was a general feeling that for far too long the legal system had been balanced in favour of the Claimant and that was a situation that needed to be addressed and redressed.

FOIL was not set up as a direct competitor to APIL, The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, who represent the interests of Claimants so well, but the success of APIL has certainly acted as a spur to FOIL in its subsequent efforts.

In truth, FOIL is trying to do for the Defendants' insurance market what APIL has done for Claimants.

The intention of FOIL was to promote a unified approach on behalf of Lawyers whose primary client base was the insurance market and at the first AGM, the President at the time, Maurice Nichols, stated,

"It (FOIL) may provide a useful united point of contact with organisations such as APIL, perhaps with a view to agreeing certain understandings, protocols and helping to smooth the passage of litigation generally".

Since then the role of FOIL has rapidly developed and now has regular contact with many interested bodies such as the ABI, the Law Society, the Law Commission and the Ministry of Justice to name just a few.

FOIL is not a mouthpiece for the insurance industry: it is a mouthpiece for all lawyers, solicitors and legal executives, who act for insurance companies and where there is a conflict of view between insurers and their legal professionals then it is FOIL's job to represent the interests of the lawyers concerned.

FOIL informs members about the changes in insurance law but more importantly, FOIL wants to be at the forefront of changing the law. We want to play a part in guiding the "law makers" so that even though we may be politically incorrect we ensure that the emphasis in legislation and rule changes are not all for the Claimant but are truly balanced - after all, there is no "them and us' in this market. Today's "victim" is tomorrow's "tortfeasor"

FOIL has evolved greatly over the last 17 years but perhaps the biggest changes have taken place following the research carried out during the "Big Conversation " in 2008.

You can see elsewhere on this site that we have increased membership fees to support a stronger and more effective FOIL with a Strategic Plan, Vision, Mission Statement and Values.

FOIL owes a great deal to the support of members, officers and their firms. We set out below, a list of Past Presidents

Maurice Nichols

Tony Cherry

Martin Bruffel

Andrew Parker

Martin Staples

Tim Wallis

Jason Rowley

Claire McKinney

Andrew Underwood

Neil McLaughlin

Lea Brocklebank

Henry Bermingham