EWJ June 2024 web - Journal - Page 19
should set out what steps it is taking in conjunction
with the MIB to address these concerns, and when it
expects them to be resolved.
The OIC Portal was developed with LiP’s in mind and
whilst their user experience has been poor, professional users have faced almost 2 years of bugs, fixes
and delays in roll out and faced delays not faced by
LiP’s.
Unresolved cases and timeliness
As noted above, the latest quarterly monitoring data
for OIC up to 30 June 2023 showed that 568,214
claims had been submitted since its launch, and only
146,626 had reached settlement to date—just over a
quarter. In addition, 72,141 claims had exited the portal for a reason other than settlement, of which 8,023
had gone to court. This means that approximately
349,000 cases remained in the portal pending a resolution—up from just under 212,000 at the same point
in 2022.
Carpenters also told us litigants in person were
“known to settle cheaply to avoid delay, particularly
when in the midst of a cost of living crisis”.
We are concerned by the growing number of unresolved cases in the OIC portal, which now stands at
349,000. For the minority of cases that have reached
a settlement to date, the average time taken to do so is
251 days and is predicted to increase further as more
complex cases, which have taken longer to reach
conclusion, begin to settle.
For those claims that do reach settlement, the latest
monitoring data shows that in the quarter to 30 June
2023 it took an average of 251 days for a claim to reach
settlement—up from 238 days in the previous quarter,
and 227 days before that. A determinant in the time
taken to reach settlement is the fact that claimants may
choose to wait out their prognosis if they believe their
injuries will last longer than the medical provider has
predicted and wish to prove this to receive a higher
offer. The MoJ told us the average time for a claim to
reach settlement was likely to continue to rise. It
explained:
The average settlement time remains variable because
claims with longer prognoses have started to settle. No
claim on OIC is older than May 2021; the average
time started low as short prognosis claims quickly settled and will increase as longer prognoses push up the
average. We don’t expect timeliness data to settle until
OIC has been live for 3 years, the limitation period for
these claims. Only then can we have a true picture of
whether timeliness has improved.
One of the objectives of the OIC portal was to simplify
and speed up the process of making a claim for
whiplash injuries. Whilst we acknowledge that the nature of the claims process is such that there will always
be a stock of cases in the portal at different stages in the
claims lifecycle, and that some will take longer to reach
a resolution than others, we recommend the MoJ investigates further the reasons for the growing number of unresolved cases and the deterioration in the
timeliness of reaching settlement, and publishes its
findings by the end of the year. This should include
an analysis of all stages of the claims lifecycle, including those aspects which defendants are responsible for
progressing, those which claimants are responsible for
progressing, and those where improvements to the
OIC portal itself could raise performance. It should
also include an analysis of timeliness in comparison to
how equivalent cases previously progressed in the
MoJ’s Claims Portal, and of the apparent disparity in
settlement times between represented and unrepresented claims.
In its written submission DAC Beachcroft Claims Ltd,
who provide claims handling services to insurers in
England and Wales, stated that insurers have reported
that in represented cases there is often a significant
delay in the medical report being uploaded to the system, adding “it is not clear why this is”. They added
that there was no suggestion that it is taking longer for
medical experts to provide reports. Written evidence
from Allianz, the Association of British Insurers and
Keoghs LLP also referred to delays in medical reports
being submitted in to the OIC portal in cases where
claimants were professionally represented.40 They
highlighted the marked difference in the settlement
times between represented and unrepresented
claimants. In June 2023, represented claims took an
average of 277 days to settle and unrepresented claims
took 121 days.
The cost of motor insurance
The Government had estimated that the savings made
by insurance companies under the whiplash reforms,
would lead to a reduction in motor insurance premiums by approximately £35 per policy. However, the
majority of the evidence submissions we received
noted that motor insurance premiums have continued to rise. This is despite there having been a reduction in the number of minor personal injury claims
being submitted since the implementation of the
reform programme.
In their written evidence, MASS told us “there is no
evidence that the savings from the reforms are being
passed to motorists and the reality is that few have ever
believed that consumers will see any of the £1.1 billion
of anticipated savings”.45 Elsewhere, APIL told us that
the price of motor vehicle insurance had gone up by
28% since the reforms were introduced, despite there
being a 20% reduction in the number of motor injury
claims registered with the Government’s Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU) in 2021. The Association
said: “Insurance companies have enjoyed healthy financial savings at the expense of injured people and
the wider British public who pay for car insurance”.
In their written evidence, MASS said the settlement
of cases was taking “considerably longer” than under
the previous claims process and delays in settlement
had steadily increased, likely due to the technical issues outlined in the previous section.41 They also acknowledged the disparity in the average number of
days to settle a claim between unrepresented and represented claims. On this, Carpenters Group noted:
EXPERT WITNESS JOURNAL
17
JUNE 2024