NAHL is a UK consumer legal group. It markets injury claims to law firms through National Accident Helpline, runs its own law firm, National Accident Law, and owns Bush & Co, which supports people with catastrophic injuries. In 2024 a jump in online advertising costs cut enquiries and led to a £39.9m write-down. By 2026 profit had recovered and net debt had fallen to £1.1m, yet the shares had roughly halved from their early-2025 level.
Injury claims from the first call to the courtroom report
The Consumer Legal Services division sells marketing to law firms under the National Accident Helpline brand. It also processes claims itself through National Accident Law, the joint venture Law Together and Your Law. Enquiries placed into National Accident Law earn the most but tie up cash for the longest.
Critical Care is Bush & Co. It supplies expert witness reports for serious injury cases to claimants and defendants. It also provides case management and nurse-led care packages. It works with 195 expert witnesses and has newer lines for injured children (Bush & Co. Kids) and standalone care (Care Solutions). 30 Sep 2026 7 May 2026
Betting on its own law firm
In 2023 NAHL put more of its enquiries into National Accident Law rather than into joint ventures. Cash collected from settled claims rose 73% to £6.0m, and net debt fell to £9.7m from £13.3m. The company sold non-core Homeward Legal in April 2023. It also said Bush & Co was growing fast.
In April 2024 the board said it was evaluating a sale of Bush & Co. 2 May 2024 24 Jan 2024 5 Apr 2024
Google costs hit, 2024 write-down
Early in 2024 a Google search algorithm change pushed up the cost of winning enquiries. Competitors then bid aggressively for paid search. NAHL's enquiries fell from 35,643 to 19,744 in the year, and enquiries placed with panel law firms fell 70%. On 27 June 2024 the company warned of significantly lower revenue and profit. The shares fell from 68.5p in May to 57p in June.
Revenue fell 8% to £38.8m. NAHL booked a £39.9m non-cash write-down of goodwill in Personal Injury, which produced a statutory pre-tax loss of £39.1m. Underlying pre-tax profit was £1.4m.
The Bush & Co sale process ran through 2024 and reached final bidders in December. It ended without a sale in June 2025. The chair said conditions were not right to maximise value. The process cost £185k in exceptional costs and distracted Critical Care management, and the division's 2025 performance was flat. 27 Jun 2024 7 May 2025 23 Dec 2024 19 Jun 2025 7 May 2026 24 Sep 2025
Repair in 2025
At the start of 2025 the board changed the leadership of the injury business and brought in a new senior management team. Management hired senior marketing staff and shifted to more targeted Google search. Enquiry costs returned to historical levels. NAHL also placed fewer enquiries into its own law firm (4,276 against 5,892) to limit the cash it ties up.
Underlying operating profit almost doubled to £7.3m. Pre-tax profit was £4.4m, and net debt fell to £3.2m. Trustpilot scores for National Accident Law rose from 2.9 to 4.0 over the year. No dividend was proposed.
The shares did not follow. They fell from 79p in January 2025 to 34.9p in December. 24 Sep 2025 7 May 2026 27 Jan 2026
What 2024 and 2025 showed
NAHL depended heavily on search engines for its supply of claims. When Google changed its rules and rivals bid up prices, profit fell fast. The company says it has since got those costs back under control.
Its own law firm turns enquiries into cash but is shrinking. National Accident Law settles more claims than it adds, so the book of ongoing claims fell from 8,457 at the end of 2024 to 7,243 at the end of 2025. Growing it would take more working capital, which the board is reviewing.
The failed Bush & Co sale left the group with no exit and with a divisional team that had been distracted. 7 May 2026 30 Sep 2026 19 Jun 2025
“The year again saw the value of settlements exceed the value of new claims added to the book.” 7 May 2026
Leadership and who holds the shares
James Saralis is chief executive and Chris Higham is finance director. Management guided in line on most occasions, but in June 2024 it warned that the year would fall below expectations. It cut net debt in each year covered here, from £21.0m in 2019 to £1.1m in mid-2026. It brought in a new senior team in the injury business at the start of 2025 and a new finance director at Bush & Co in September 2025.
Lombard Odier Asset Management reduced its holding from 18.84% to 9.29% between October 2023 and September 2026. Schroders held about 16% in May 2025. 27 Jun 2024 24 Sep 2025 30 Sep 2026 7 May 2026
Smaller group, lower debt
For the six months to June 2026 revenue rose 5% to £18.3m and pre-tax profit rose 31% to £2.3m. These figures exclude Searches UK. Net debt was £1.1m, the lowest since the 2014 IPO. Critical Care revenue grew 3%, with expert witness instructions up 22%. Case management revenue fell 8%, so Bush & Co is moving more of that work to employed staff.
NAHL sold Searches UK, a property searches business it had owned since 2016, to TM Group for £1.234m. The sale completed on 8 October 2026. The proceeds go against the bank facility, which was cut to £8.5m in May 2026 and runs to December 2027. In late September it also settled a long-running supplier contract dispute, which brings in £1.85m.
The shares closed October 2026 at 43.7p, up from 35.7p in August. 30 Sep 2026 27 Aug 2026 8 Oct 2026 28 Sep 2026 7 May 2026
Net cash, fewer settlements and the strategic review
The board says the supplier settlement will lift profit and cash for 2026 materially above market expectations. It expects the group to be in net cash by the end of October 2026, for the first time since the IPO.
Settlements in National Accident Law will be lower in the second half. The reason is that fewer enquiries were placed into the firm over the past two years, and this will mean lower settlement revenue and cash.
Bush & Co plans to complete its case management model change by early 2027. Management expects higher margins in the medium term.
The board is still exploring ways to accelerate value for shareholders and is reviewing how it allocates capital. It has given no date, saying only that updates will follow in due course. 30 Sep 2026 8 Oct 2026
“We also anticipate the Group being in net cash position by the end of October 2026.” 30 Sep 2026
Written by AI from NAHL Group's own announcements since Oct 2023 · every paragraph links to its sources