Personal injury firm appoints administrators

Changes to the UK’s legal market have led to the collapse of MTA Personal Injury Solicitors. Inquesta Corporate Recovery & Insolvency has been installed to handle the affairs of the Kent based company.

Less than a decade ago, MTA Personal Injury Solicitors was bringing in multi-million pound revenues in the UK’s booming personal injury market. However, like many other firms specialising in such litigation, the company has been stung by reforms to the market in the last nine years.

The firm specialised in road traffic accident (RTA) and medical negligence claims. In the last annual accounts before the market was reformed, for year ending June 2012, the firm enjoyed a £23.5 million turnover, with operating profit of more than £2 million. The business also had a headcount of over 300 staff, and net current assets of £13.2 million.

However, MTA Personal Injury Solicitors’ profit margins were dramatically tightened by reduced fixed fees and the abolition of the recovery of success fees before 2021. Illustrating this, the firm’s most recently published accounts, for June 2019,  showed the firm had net assets of just £332,160. Then, earlier this year, the Civil Liability Act prevented the recovery of costs for RTA claims under £5,000. As a result,

Steven Wiseglass, director at Inquesta Corporate Recovery & Insolvency who was appointed administrator, said, “There should be no adverse impact on the ongoing cases, as these have been protected as a result of their transfer to other firms. We are currently undertaking statutory duties in relation to the administration.”

An agreement has been reached with Recovery First, which allocates the firm’s ongoing cases to other practices, to transfer the work in progress. Meanwhile, MTA Personal Injury Lawyers’ remaining seven employees have been made redundant.