Official Injury Claim portal: Why another government U-turn is badly needed

Andy Cullwick, head of marketing at First4Lawyers

A full and transparent review of the Official Injury Claim portal, with all stakeholders working collaboratively, is urgently needed to understand the problems and how to fix them

Another quarter, another set of increasingly concerning but unsurprising statistics from the government’s Official Injury Claim portal.

The figures—from July to September this year—are the fifth tranche to be published since the portal’s launch last May and it is difficult to see much to recommend what the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has hailed a “cautious success”.

Numbers are down—and significantly so. To date, just over 350,000 cases have been recorded in the portal compared to an annual average of around 650,000 before the pandemic.

Of those, just 15% have settled—a process that, at the moment, typically takes more than six months and in the last quarter has actually got longer, from 175 to 208 days.

What was sold as a state-of-the-art system enabling victims of lower value road traffic accidents to bring claims without needing a lawyer is used by unrepresented claimants in just 9% of cases.

The number of claims exiting the portal, which the MoJ itself highlighted as having “dropped substantially” during the last quarter, are back up by a substantial 45%, from 5,655 to 8,222.

Furthermore, the reason given for around 30% of exits is “complex issues of law”—this in cases that claimants are initially told are suitable for the portal and can be pursued without legal help. Almost one in 10 unrepresented claimants who drop out do so to instruct a lawyer.

Nearly 18 months in and these numbers can no longer be explained away as ‘early days’. What they show is a continued and worrying trend towards a system that is not fit for its supposedly intended purpose of providing access to justice.

What’s gone wrong?

What’s gone right might be an easier question to answer. Most law firms with experience of using the portal say the technology wasn’t ready to start with and there are still problems with it even now.

The fact so many people still need a lawyer speaks volumes—and even that’s not as easy as it once was. Many firms that dealt with whiplash claims prior to the reforms have now ditched the work that, with fixed tariffs and subsequent tight costs margins, is no longer financially viable.

Critics say the process is unnecessarily complex and there was and still is a lack of information and awareness about the portal, with insurers being relied on to signpost potential claimants. Even if they decide to pursue a claim, the existing fixed tariffs are not straightforward and mixed cases that involve tariff and non-tariff injuries are still in limbo pending test cases being heard by the Court of Appeal.

As Elena Manukyan, founder of The Injury Solicitor, put it in an interview for First4Lawyers’ latest whitepaper: “I tell all my clients during the initial call that they can DIY it, but most people don’t feel confident pursuing a claim themselves.

“If you look at the guidance it’s overwhelming for me, and I have been doing this for 10 years.

“People often aren’t sure if they should even be using the portal, let alone what their injuries are actually worth.”

Where to now?

Despite the numbers falling far short of the government’s own projections, industry calls for a review of the portal have so far fallen on deaf ears.

Even calls to review the tariff of damages, which has been criticised for being far too low, have been blocked, with the MoJ claiming there is not yet sufficient evidence from court judgments for an “effective assessment”.

The Motor Accident Solicitors Society says steeply rising inflation is not only undermining current levels of compensation but leaving some people simply unable to seek legal support at all.

If the government’s aims were purely to cut the number of claims and compensation then the portal has been a success, including for insurers that now don’t have to pay out as much. Its continued detrimental impact on vulnerable road users and their ability to access justice, however, is not.

A full and transparent review of the portal, with all stakeholders working collaboratively, is urgently needed to understand the problems and how to fix them.

Is it too late to turn things around? As we have seen over the last few weeks, the government isn’t averse to a U-turn but whether we shall see one in this case is sadly doubtful.

Image sources: Canva and First4Lawyers

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