Personal Injury Claims Need Overhaul

The future of personal injury litigation and its effect of personal injury solicitors hang in the balance after The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has continued to voice its concerns over expediting a much needed overhaul of the system.

The ABI published a consultation paper over a year ago and are still anxiously awaiting a substantive response from the Ministry of Justice. The ABI suggested imposing a system of fixed fees, giving insurers the job of investigating cases and increasing the limit on fast track cases from £15,000 to £25,000.

The ABI is the trade association for Britain’s insurance industry. Its member companies provide over 90% of the insurance business in the UK. It represents insurance companies to the Government, and to the regulatory and other agencies, and is a powerful voice on public policy and financial services issues. ABI member companies hold up to a sixth of all investments traded on the London Stock Exchange, on behalf of millions of pensioners and savers.

The research in the consultation paper contended that injury claims following a motor accident took on average two years to settle, with three years on average for workplace claims. This time span was deemed unacceptable and to help temper such problems, the ABI suggested that insurers should be able to investigate claims in the first instance, so that where they admitted liability, they could move straight away to negotiating settlement.

Personal injury solicitors, in particular, were condemned for paying high referral fees to claims management companies. The report recommended that reducing legal costs was the key to delivering a fairer and more efficient system.

Furthermore, it was suggested by the ABI that it has become an increasingly worrying trend that a person who has been injured goes to a lawyer who does a vast amount of unnecessary research, before putting the claim anywhere near the insurer thus increasing the time gap.

Critics of the ABI have suggested that the recommendations are simply a cost cutting exercise and will have no considerable effect

Although the ABI has been impatient for news from the government as per promised changes, the government has already drawn up plans to improve the process and the ABI is keen to see them implemented, so that claims can be settled swiftly.

Under the new proposals, personal injury solicitors would have five days after being contacted by a claimant in which to notify insurers of a potential claim.

Insurers would have 15 days in the case of a motor claim, and 30 days for a workplace or public liability claim, to decide whether or not they are going to settle.

Saurav is an author of several articles pertaining to No Win No Fee, Compensation Claims, Personal Injury Claims and other legal articles.