ACCIDENT victims can now turn to a new group of local legal eagles to fight their battle for personal injury compensation.

Kent Accident Link, a network of 11 law firms across the county, is the outcome of two years of work to clean up the compensation minefield.

In a string of controversial cases, so-called "claims farmers" have stung victims for much of their compensation through high insurance premiums.

Personal injury specialists in Kent and Medway wanted to show the system could be fairer.

Kent Accident Link (KAL), thought to be the first legal co-operative of its kind in the United Kingdom, was given a celebrity launch at Chatham Dockyard.

It aims to help victims of road traffic accidents, accidents at work, industrial disease, disasters, sporting injuries, illness caused by the environment such as cancer, eczema, leukaemia, asthma and dermatitis, public liability (food poisoning, allergic reactions, loss cause by defective consumer products) and pedestrian accidents.

Kent-based actress Helen Hobson, an accident victim herself, and who supplies the voiceover to a series of KAL radio commercials, joined the celebrations in The Commissioner's House.

Accident victims ring a central number, supply a few basic details and are put through to their nearest specialist.

Lawyers at Stephens and Son, Chatham, came up with the idea two years ago. John Holder, senior partner, clients had been getting a raw deal from claims farmers.

The legal profession was getting a bad name and it was time to fight back, he said.

Robert Harvey, a personal injury lawyer with Stephens and Son, and one of the KAL founders, said too many compensation cases were being handled outside the county.

Andrew Keel, of Folkestone law firm Gambrills, said: "In most cases, the client will recover all of the legal expenses but you can't guarantee that will be the case in every single circumstance."

Michael Longmore, a partner with Furley Page Solicitors, Canterbury, said: "We joined Kent Accident Link as we believe that all clients should be in a position to see their lawyer face to face. Often national networks may assign a solicitor who is several hundred miles away, giving no opportunity for personal contact."

The 11 KAL firms are: Andrew Gardner Partnership, Maidstone; Boys and Maughan, Thanet; Bradleys, Dover; Christopher Harris and Co, Sittingbourne and Sheppey; Furley Page, Canterbury, Gambrills, Fokestone, Hythe and Romney Marsh, Kingsfords, Ashford, Martin Tolhurst Partnersahip, Gravesend, Stephens and Son, Medway Towns, Thomson Snell and Passmore, Tunbridge Wells, and Warners, Sevenoaks.

The Kent Accident Link number of 0800 072 1572.