Personal injury claims need to be settled more quickly

According to officials from the Association of British Insurers personal injury claims need to be settled more quickly, and there is a government procedure that could help these claims to be dealt with more speedily if it is put into place. The ABI has called for the government to bring in a faster system as early on as possible, stating that there can be huge delays in the settlement of personal injury claims, and that this issue needs to be addressed.

A personal injury claim relating to a motor accident can take an amazing 730 days to settle in some cases, according to the ABI. Some personal injury claims relating to workplace accidents can take an astonishing three years to settle, states the ABI. As an example the ABI said that with the new system in place the time that it takes to deal with motor accident personal injury claims could be slashed by three quarters.

Officials from the ABI explained the cause of some of these delays, stating: "What tends to happen is that a person who has been injured goes to a lawyer who does a vast amount of research, often unnecessarily in our opinion, before putting the claim anywhere near the insurer. There is then a process of negotiation over liability and settlement in a very adversarial system."

Under the new system there would be strict deadlines and timescales in place with regards to how long lawyers had to contact the insurance firm and tell them that there might be a claim on its way, as well as strict deadlines relating to how long insurance firms have to decide whether they are going to settle the claim.

Tom Smith
8th April 2008

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