Insurer RSA hit by 'deafness' cases

“No-win, no-fee” lawyers are increasingly targeting employees in noisy workplaces and persuading them to make deafness-related claims, insurer RSA warned today.

The company said it was dealing with a “high level” of noise-induced hearing loss cases being made by people working in places like factories, shipyards and nightclubs.

“Lawyers are targeting anywhere they can prove is noisy,” said chief executive Stephen Hester. “I’d say that about 80% of these claims are rejected but it’s a problem across the industry.”

RSA said the volume being handled by UK insurers more than tripled from 3000 cases a month to 10,000 a month last year. The warning came as the insurance giant saw net written premiums in the third quarter fall 9% to £5.7 billion with prices down in the UK. The shares lost 2.3% to 473p.

Since the discovery of a £200 million black hole in its Irish division last year, Hester has cut costs, raised £775 million in a rights issue, scrapped its dividend and sold businesses. He said RSA plans to start paying a “modest” dividend again next year.