Success in adapting to the latest personal injury claim reforms lies in implementing online systems and processes that deal with low-value road-traffic accidents as efficiently and quickly as possible, says Sucheet Amin, CEO of inCase
The Civil Liability Act 2018 reforms were intended to reduce the number and the cost of minor road traffic accident (RTA) claims on or after 31 May 2021. The reforms were also intended to stop the numerous exaggerated or fraudulent claims that were being made, which inevitably were causing insurance premiums to rise.
These new rules introduced fixed tariff damages for RTA whiplash injuries, increasing the limit on applicable claims to the small claims track from £1,000 to £5,000. With some exceptions being made for vulnerable road users, eg, cyclists and pedestrians, whose small claims limit remains at £1,000.
These changes have important implications for both claimants and legal advisers. The new tariff system awards a fixed level of compensation for whiplash injuries, assessed within specific bands. Also, if general damages for pain, injury, and loss of amenity fail to exceed the new £5,000 small claims limit, then legal costs will not be recoverable.
A new norm for claimants
The new system, for claimants to make a low-value personal injury claim, operates through an online portal set up by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau, called the Official Injury Claim (OIC) service. The system was intended to be user friendly, so that claimants would no longer need to seek legal representation to manage their claims and recover damages. Needless to say, this view has been subject to criticism.
Unrepresented claimants are expected to rely on a how-to guide instead of a trained legal adviser. Consequently, this has been met with an unfavourable response from both the Law Society and major personal injury law firms. They suspect that these reforms will lead to awards of damages for applicable claims, and any associated costs, being noticeably lower.
The new system becomes even more complex for the claimant when they have suffered a whiplash injury, which is now subject to a set rate of compensation via the portal, and also other injuries that are not. The claimant is advised in the official guide to consider making a valuation of their other injuries pursuant to the Judicial College Guidelines. Not surprisingly, this level of complexity, along with deciding what other losses may be included in the claim and obtaining evidence to support them, may well deter some claimants from going ahead.