It has been suggested by leading law firm Freshfields that air ambulance charities should be included in claims, for example for personal injury, where an air ambulance has had a role in responding, treating and transporting a patient to hospital — usually at great expense.
Being able to recover their costs from air ambulance rescues as part of a settlement/litigation could help these charities replenish their funds after a difficult year, but also could set a precedent for others in the industry to follow.
However Chris Varley, chairman of Export & General Insurance Services Ltd, warned: “While we want to see every opportunity explored to help fund the charities that provide air ambulances it would be a sad turn of events if the victims of accidents find themselves having to pay out for their own rescue where we all know the costs of flying a helicopter. All the same there ought to be liabilities that should easily be recovered from the insurance companies insuring motor vehicles where most of these incidences occur. What we don’t want to see is the sort of behaviour these law firms exhibit when they are ambulance chasing when they can cause even more distress to the victims of an accident than was caused by physical injury.
“Obviously in motor-related injury there is a straightforward route to claiming but in other accidents it is less clear, and we’d want to see that where the costs come fully back to the victim that these are not costs that are intended to be recovered by the law firms.“
For further details see this article in the Law Society Gazette: lawgazette.co.uk/practice/firm-leads-fight-to-recover-air-ambulance-costs-from-defendants/5107467.article