Reform of personal injury claims

The Legal Expenses Insurance Group (LEIG) welcomes the Ministry of Justice response to representations on its consultation paper on case track limits and the claims process for personal injury claims published on 21 July 2008.

Tony Baker, LEIG Director, described the MoJ response as “sensible and pragmatic”. He noted:

“It is understandable why the MoJ has taken some time to publish its response as the issues are complex and, quite rightly, it has concluded that the key consideration is not to restrict access to justice.

The MoJ has listened to practitioners and rejected most of the proposed changes. After the event insurance premiums will continue to be recoverable and this will enable legal expenses insurers to continue to serve the interests of claimants and to adapt to new processes that may emerge.”

The main changes will be to the claims process for smaller road traffic accident claims. Whether these work will be very much down to insurers and their ability to give early decisions on liability. Past experience is not encouraging but it must be hoped that they will now introduce new processes and provide the appropriate staff resources and expertise so as to give decisions on liability within the 15 working days specified by the MoJ.

LEIG will be studying the detail of the MoJ response and will provide information and assistance as appropriate to help deliver what is proposed.

The Legal Expenses Insurance Group (LEIG) was formed in April 2006 by a number of leading legal expenses insurers and intermediaries. Currently there are nine members of the Group and they represent in excess of eight million motor legal expense policyholders and over 16 million policyholders in general. It is estimated that members account for over half of the before the event (BTE) and after the event (ATE) legal expenses insurance market.

The aim of the Group is to work together to protect and advance the rights of claimants to justice and fair levels of compensation.

A number of legislative, trade body and regulatory proposals are currently in discussion. While some proposals can be commended, several have the potential to impact adversely on the ability for individuals to be compensated fairly for personal injuries or where they have lost out from someone else’s actions or negligence.

The Group welcomes new members from companies with a similar focus and commonality of purpose. It also welcomes contact from organisations with similar objectives.

Further information

Tony Baker
Director, LEIG
Hampden House
1 Hampden Hill
Ware, Herts SG12 7JT

Email: thetonybaker@gmail.com