You may have heard that over the past year the government proposed to make further reforms to personal injury claims. One of these reforms was to effectively remove the right for people to claim for low value whiplash claims in an attempt to reduce the number of fraudulent claims being made for low value injuries and enable insurance companies to pass on savings made from not having to pay out on these low value and potentially fraudulent cases.
In a dramatic U-turn, the government has set aside its further plan to make reforms. Why? It has become apparent that previous reforms which slashed legal costs payable for all types of personal injury claims under £25,000, involved huge savings for insurance companies who do not appear to have passed on the savings to customers by reducing premiums. Figures obtained from the Association of British Insurers show that insurance claims in 2015 totaled £5.8 billion compared to £8.3 billion in 2010. Have those savings been used to reduce insurance premiums? It would appear not as the average premium has risen by over 10% Shocking news, we know!
The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers and The Law Society have continued to fight, believing there should be access to justice for all and they also continue to call to the government for a ban on cold calling and spam texting in relation to personal injury claims. We would welcome this ban. As Solicitors, we have rules which prevent us from cold calling and yet, as a profession we are the ones who bear the brunt of the criticism for the unscrupulous methods employed by other companies.
