New Protocols for low value personal injury claims

[T.C.]

You may not be aware that from early next year, new protocols will be introduced in respect of how low value personal injury claims are handled and dealt with.

For claims worth between £1,000 and £10,000, solicitors and insurers will be on fixed recoverable costs of around £1400 split into 3 stages.

Stage 1 - £400 for the solicitor to prepare a letter of claim and send it to the defendant insurers who admit/deny liability

Stage 2 - £800 for where liability is admitted, the claimant obtains a medical report and the process continues with offers and negotiation of a settlement to a strict timetable and

Stage 3 - £250 for a paper hearing or £500 for an oral hearing and parties cannot agree a settlement and the case goes to trial (court)

Some of you may think that law firms and litigators already earn enough money out of handling claims, but when you take into account the disbursments that have to be paid, the number of hours spent on the file and the number of hoops that have to be jumped through to bring a case to a satisfactory conclusion, and the fact that it can take several years before they get paid, the amount on offer to take on low value claims really is an insult.

For many law firms, they will simply drop doing (if they have not already done so) low value work, and the chances are that even for those who specialise in the high volume low value work it will probably get passed to a legal assistance rather than get dealt with by a solicitor.

Many riders will have to depend on their insurers to fight their corner for them and I can see many cases being under valued and settled super quick just to get them off their books. The chances are that many claims will be paid out rather than investigated properly which is going to affect many claims where the rider believes they were not at fault, but that option to fight it is taken away from them.

This in turn is also going to reduce the choice of law firms available to those injured!

[snapdragon]

'tis all still greek to me - didn't understand all the shennanigans when I had to claim, and no wiser really. basically 'don't bother claiming' is best then TC?

[Kwackerz]

I take it this means the consumer.. the biker in our case, will get shafted and the firms handling it will probably not fight the good fight as well as they might have.

Kinda a reversed 90's trend of companies taking on accident claims, like seen on the tv ads.. the ambulance chasers... now youll be lucky to find someone to take the claim on who will fight it properly for you... cos they wont make any money compared to the time spent. ?

[T.C.]

I take it this means the consumer.. the biker in our case, will get shafted and the firms handling it will probably not fight the good fight as well as they might have.

Kinda a reversed 90's trend of companies taking on accident claims, like seen on the tv ads.. the ambulance chasers... now youll be lucky to find someone to take the claim on who will fight it properly for you... cos they wont make any money compared to the time spent. ?

That is the long and short of it. A recently qualified Solicitor's time is charged out at around £135 per hour and if you go to partner level you are looking at between £250 - £300 per hour. Assuming a newly qualified solicitore handles the case, you don't need a maths degree to see that the £1400 fixed costs will soon be swallowed up as even the simplest of files often need in excess of 20 - 30 hours work.

The other side of the coin is that some injuries may be over valued to get them above the 10K thresh hold which will then be reflected in substantialy increased premiums as a result of quite realatively minor injuries.