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Road Traffic Accident Reforms
Ministry of Justice Reforms
Last year the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) revealed the proposals for streamlining the compensation process for low value Road Traffic Accident personal injury claims.
The MoJ recently confirmed that the changes will apply to claims resulting from accidents which happen on or after Friday 30 April 2010.
Do the reforms apply to all claims?
No. The proposals focus solely on the following motor personal injury claims -
• Claims with a personal injury element valued between £1,000 and £10,00 when the accident occurs in England or Wales on or after Friday 30 April 2010
Other motor personal injury claims are exempt, including –
• Claims with a personal injury element under £1,000
• Claims involving employers’ liability and / or public liability
• Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) Untraced Drivers Agreement cases
• Claims where the claimant or defendant is deceased
• Claims where the claimant is bankrupt
• Claims involving employers’ liability and / or public liability
• Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) Untraced Drivers Agreement cases
• Claims where the claimant or defendant is deceased
• Claims where the claimant is bankrupt
What are the objectives of the reforms?
The aim is to encourage early notification of claims, promote early liability decisions, and to ensure there's a process to deliver fair compensation to the claimant as soon as possible in the most cost effective way.
Key objectives -
• Speeding up the claims process by fixing timelines for the agreement of liability and the value of any third party injuries
• Reducing legal costs and administrative expenses
• Introducing fixed response times and changes to the current fixed legal costs
• Introducing an electronic industry portal to be used by insurers, claimant lawyers and compensators, to enable the swift electronic exchange of all relevant claims information during the lifecycle of the claim
• Reducing legal costs and administrative expenses
• Introducing fixed response times and changes to the current fixed legal costs
• Introducing an electronic industry portal to be used by insurers, claimant lawyers and compensators, to enable the swift electronic exchange of all relevant claims information during the lifecycle of the claim
What are the key changes and what do they mean for me?
The new process is important, not only in terms of reducing the costs incurred when settling personal injury claims, but also in providing an improved process for claimants.
This scheme will mean that everyone knows in advance what the process and the fixed costs will be at the various stages.
Under the new system claimant lawyers will notify the defendant insurer of a claim via an industry portal, and the insurer will be given 15 days to respond on liability.
However if the notification is received from the claimant lawyer before you our own client has notified us of their claim (which often happens today), then we as your broker will have less opportunity to agree liability in the 15 day period.
That is why early notification of claims is very important or the chance to agree liability is missed.
How you can help
Currently it takes on average 30 days for us as brokers to hear about a commercial motor incident?
Under MoJ rules, this means we wouldn’t have the opportunity to investigate liability within the 15 day timeframe and the claim then drops out of the new process.
Under MoJ rules, this means we wouldn’t have the opportunity to investigate liability within the 15 day timeframe and the claim then drops out of the new process.
So, please notify us of any incidents as early as possible, and with as much information about the incident as you can, in particular any third party details.
If you would like to know more about the new MoJ process then call Ian Hall on 0151 237 7321 or visit http://rtapiclaimsprocess.org.uk/index.html
