Fast Track Personal Injury Claims Process for Road Traffice Accidents

The process

The new personal injury claims regulations come in to force from the end of April 2010 for road traffic accidents. The claims process has been divided into three stages with fixed costs for each.

Stage 1:

• Claims sent to the defendant’s insurance company or, where appropriate MIB using a standard Claims Notification Form (CNF) via a secure electronic system.
• Insurer to respond within 15 business days declaring liability is admitted or not.
• MIB will be allowed a longer response time of 30 days to accommodate the time it takes for the claim relating to an accident with an uninsured driver to be reported to the Bureau.

Fixed recoverable costs of £400 will apply to all claims where the insurer has admitted liability or admitted with contributory negligence for the claimants failure to wear a seatbelt.

Stage 2:

• Following admission of liability, the claimant’s solicitor to obtain a medical report and complete a predetermined settlement pack.
• The settlement pack and medical report are sent electronically to the insurer with any other documentation e.g. receipts.
• Insurer to accept offer or make counter offer within 15 business days of receipt of settlement pack.
• If a counter offer is made, another 20 days will be allowed for negotiation between parties.

Fixed recoverable costs of £800 will apply to all claims during Stage 2. This will attract a 12.5% success fee uplift (where applicable) where the case settles.

Stage 3:

• If quantum (settlement) has not been agreed after this period, a judge will either review the case papers or hear evidence to determine quantum..

Separate fees of £250 or £500 (paper hearings and oral hearings respectively) will be payable to claimant solicitors for Stage 3.

Injury Claims Compensation – New Rules for Road Traffic Accidents

On 30th April 2010 the long awaited reforms out forward by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to streamline the compensation system for low cost personal injury claims resulting from road traffic accidents will become a reality.

Industry implications

The MoJ initiative is a milestone for the insurance industry and follows years of lobbying by the Association of British Insurers (ABI) for a simpler, quicker and more cost-effective system. The new regulations mean that a standard framework is applied across the industry, designed to reduce delays and limit legal costs to the consumer, which are ultimately reflected in the cost of motor insurance.

This move has been broadly welcomed by the insurance industry and the legal profession, as the absence of a uniform process to this point has led to some claims taking years to be resolved and, ultimately, costing more after the additional time-associated costs have been applied. The ABI estimates that approximately 400,000 people could benefit from the new processes.

The reforms will apply to personal injury motor claims with a value of between £1,000 and £10,000 – around 80% of all motor personal injury claims – and has been designed to accelerate the process by:

• minimising the amount of correspondence between the various parties
• reducing the scope for time-consuming litigation and
• avoiding duplication of work

The new process will bring visibility for claimants, solicitors and insurers of how a claim is progressing and everyone will be required to work to a strict timetable and cost structure. For MIB, this will assist in achieving one of its aims; to compensate victims fairly and promptly.

Developing the framework

During the development stages of the project, MIB have been involved in an IT Project Steering Group which was formed to help develop an online portal – the gateway to the system which allows secure exchange of information back and forward between compensator and claimant as the claim progresses through the process.

This Group also included representatives from the insurance industry and claimant solicitors. It was important that all the parties involved had an opportunity to put forward suggestions and work together to make sure all stages of the process would work smoothly, efficiently and fairly.

In preparation for the system going live, MIB, along with several insurance companies and claimant representatives, has been conducting user acceptance tests. This involves running a number of test scenarios through the system to check for any anomalies or errors before going live. Testing is now nearing completion and MIB are at an advanced stage in their preparation to implement the system in April.

Although the MoJ reforms will only apply to personal injury claims of up to £10,000, MIB has introduced a similar processing framework to apply to higher value claims as well as claims falling within the Untraced Drivers Agreement. The application of this framework has the same aim of speeding up the process across the board and is now fully rolled out to all handlers who have received training.

Everyone across the personal injury and insurance sectors are committed to fulfilling a role in making the MoJ reforms a success. MIB is committed to the scheme’s successful implementation and determined to do everything possible to deliver fair and prompt compensation to those affected by uninsured drivers.

One Day Car Insurance

Motor insurance is a requirement by law for anyone using a vehicle on a UK public highway. What can you do if you only want to borrow a friends or a family member’s car for only 1 day? Obviously the cost of taking out an annual policy is clearly not justifiable in this instance. The alternative for motorists available is the one day car insurance cover. This will ensure that you are legally covered to drive that car or even a van on a public highway.

The one day insurance policy is a fairly new concept and most motorists are unaware that it exists. Even though its commonly known as short term car insurance or temporary car insurance or even daily insurance most insurers offer cover for 1 to 28 days. The policy can easily be arranged online with the certificate available instantly for printing. Borrowing a car for one week then take out a policy for 1 week or two weeks if needed, the short term policy is very flexible to meet the temporary car or van insurance for most motorists.

As with any type of insurance policy there are some conditions that must be met. Some typical conditions for one day car cover include;

• The vehicle to be insured must not be hire
• The vehicle to be insured will have an upper value limit of usually £40K (check with your provider)
• There are conditions on driving licence
• Motoring convictions and fixed penalty points
• Motoring claims and non motoring convictions

The above is just a small guidance as to the types of acceptance criteria insurers look at on temporary car insurance.

The 1 day car insurance policy is suitable for many different scenarios including;

You have just purchased a new vehicle and need the cover to be able to drive the vehicle back home.
You are test driving a new vehicle and need temporary insurance.
You have borrowed a friends van for the weekend and need weekend car insurance policy.

As you can see there are many benefits attached to a one day car policy. Its usually very simple to do an online quote, pay by card and print your documents immediately.

Short Term Learner Driver Car Insurance

Anyone driving a motor vehicle on a public highway in the UK by law must have a minimum of third party motor insurance cover. For experience drivers the insurance premiums are relatively low but those that are just starting on the road the insurance premiums can be well over £2000. The problem is even more compounded for provisional licence holders as a lot of motor insurers deem the risk to be too high and as such do not offer any cover for leaner drivers.

Luckily there are specialist providers that offer learner driver car insurance on a short term basis. The cover is normally comprehensive and is often available on a monthly basis. If after the month you do not wish to renew the cover, you simply let the learner driver car insurance policy to lapse.

This is obviously perfect for students who are at college or in a university and want to learn to drive on their parents or friends car whilst on holiday term. The short term car insurance for learner driver policy can easily be purchased online. Most learner insurance providers have a very easy online quote system with the option to print documents once payment has been made via a debit or a credit card.

Each learner car insurance provider will have their own terms and conditions. It is important that prior to taking out the policy, you read their terms and conditions. Some will insist that the provisional licence holder must be accompanied by a driver aged at least 25 years old whereas other providers may well accept even twenty one year olds. Other common conditions include vehicle grouping, the price of the vehicle and also any driving convictions or accidents.

Surprisingly the premiums are quite low and usually for under £100 you can obtain a fully comprehensive insurance policy for a month. Some providers also offer learner driver car insurance policies on a weekly or even on a fortnightly bases.

It is advised that you should still continue with your learning to drive with a qualified driving instructor and use the short term policy as additional practice. Driving schools offer professional instruction that can not be substituted by sitting with a friend or your parents.

Also most of these policies will automatically end as soon as your pass your driving test. This will be a condition of the provisional licence holder driver’s insurance policy. So do not automatically borrow your parent’s car or your friend’s car on which the policy was taken up and assume that you will still be covered.