Fletchers Solicitors announces exceptional growth in 2022/23 annual report and accounts

Fletchers Solicitors has announced a year of exceptional growth in its report and accounts for the year ended April 2023.

Chief Financial Officer, Alex Lynch, said revenues had increased by 26 per cent to £43m (2021/22: 34m), operating profits grew by £3.4m to £3.1m, while profit before tax grew to  £2.1m (2022: £0.2m loss).

Commenting on the financial performance, Alex said that investment in more direct-to-consumer marketing spend and the purchase by the Fletchers Group of case acquisition specialists Blume in November 2022 had helped deliver a 17 per cent increase in PI revenues, thanks to the organisation taking on more EL and PL cases than before.

The Blume factor was also behind a 17 per cent increase in case signings, with a trend towards higher value cases also boosted by the acquisition of Cycle SOS (May 2022) and Minton Morrill (September 2022), plus a renewed impetus for the Charities and Partnerships team.

Alex said: “Blume has been a great acquisition by the wider Group, both in the increase in the number of clients we’re able to help, and in enabling us to pivot our PI practice towards EL and PL cases, where we’ve previously been underweight.

“We also remain on track to double the size of our serious injury portfolio within the next two years, following the restructure of the team in 2022 under the leadership of director of serious injury Caroline Morris.”

Turning to clinical negligence, Alex said revenues grew by a quarter during the reporting period, with case signings up by eight per cent, sourced through the Patient Claim Line brand. More than 50 per cent of cases were in excess of £25K damages, further enhancing the Group’s presence in the serious injury sector.

Overall, signed cases rose to 6,724 during the reporting period from 5,744. The other key non-financial measure saw customer feedback score hold steady at 4.7.

People and technology

Fletchers’ Chief Executive Officer, Peter Haden, said that Fletchers Solicitors opened two new offices in Leeds and Liverpool during 2022-23 to  extend its market reach across the north and attract more talent.

He said: “Our people proposition is core to sustaining our success and building a diverse and inclusive working environment is a major focus of our Responsible Business Strategy, launched in 2023.

“We lead the market in enabling colleagues from non-traditional backgrounds to build a career in the law and have issued stretching targets on gender, ethnicity and social mobility.”

Fletchers also continued to invest in technology, in particular AI and machine learning. A renewed partnership with the data science department at the University of Liverpool is building on the organisation’s earlier work to speed up the claims process and focus on the most promising enquiries and identify cases with a higher chance of success.

Peter said: “AI has saved time and helped direct work towards the right person for the job, but we still make sure our specialist colleagues make any final decisions. We intend to leverage our experience with the University to build additional tools which will help grow our practice and ultimately open up access to justice for more people.”

Examples include a machine learning tool which converses with and extracts information from a clinical negligence case to help process medical records more quickly, so that our specialist nursing team can review large numbers of records across even more cases.

Peter explained that AI will enable Fletchers to help more injured people than ever before. “The number of people getting injured hasn’t changed year on year, but with many law firms exiting the market as a result of government intervention, it is harder than ever for injured people to find support where they need it.

“The Post Office scandal, as well as many maternity and other clinical negligence cases, has underlined the social utility of our work. We support and help powerless people, often badly hurt, who have no one else to turn to when they seek redress against powerful state institutions and corporations.”

“Our investment in AI powers our growth and, sitting alongside our brilliant lawyers, will enable us to help more people when they need it.”

“Lastly, we were extremely proud to launch the Fletchers Foundation a year ago with the aim of helping people who have suffered life changing injury and who do not have recourse to a compensation claim. The Foundation is supported by the business, our colleagues and our partners and has already awarded its first set of grants.”

Outlook

Peter said Fletchers remains on course for further growth during the current reporting period. “We’ve seen a 41 per cent increase in signed cases this year, a 30 per cent increase in overall headcount and we’ve opened new offices in Bolton and Cambridge, following the deal to buy Serious Injury Law.”

“The 2022/23 report and accounts has underlined the progress we made as a result of the investment by Sun European Partners and in particular the acquisition of Blume, which has been a hugely beneficial addition to the Group’s portfolio.”