Andy Cullwick, head of marketing at First4Lawyers
There are simple steps that the government could and should be taking now to improve the OIC portal
Those without a vested interest may have missed the second batch of quarterly data relating to the Official Injury Claim (OIC) portal, which was released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) last month.
Like the 68-page user guide that accompanies it—summed up perfectly by one commentator as “legal treacle”—it is still far from clear whether the system has been a success.
But with nine in every 10 claimants still seeking representation to help them navigate the portal—supposedly designed so that they wouldn’t need help—indications after six months are that the answer is still a resounding no.
While it’s early days, that doesn’t mean the government can avoid all questions on the issue. Below are five reasons why the DIY approach isn’t working, and why action is needed now.
Just one in 10 users choose to represent themselves, which was supposed to be the purpose of the portal
Six months on and even fewer claimants are choosing to go it alone, with just 9% of unrepresented portal users—or litigants in person (LiP)—in the second quarter compared to 10% in the first.
There were fears that claims management companies (CMCs) would swoop in to clear up the low value cases that many law firms were no longer willing to accept, but this