Personal Injury/Clinical Negligence

There will not be an advertising campaign to let the public know about the new way to pursue whiplash claims through the Official Injury Claim portal, it has been confirmed.

NAHL – the listed company that owns National Accident Helpline – is to step up its transformation from a claims management company into a law firm, it told investors yesterday.

The Official Injury Claim portal is 98% complete, the chief executive of the Motor Insurers’ Bureau revealed today as he urged claimant solicitors not to dismiss the system prematurely.

The whiplash reforms will come into force on 31 May, the spring bank holiday, it was confirmed yesterday, as the government finally published the new rules and a marginally increased tariff.

Legal marketing business First4Lawyers is to create an alternative business structure to handle road traffic accident claims after the whiplash reforms are introduced in May.

Talks about a reverse takeover of NAHL Group – the owner of National Accident Helpline – by fellow AIM-listed company Frenkel Topping have been called off.

The Lord Chancellor today announced yet another delay to implementation of the whiplash reforms, pushing the date back a month to May this year, but lawyers are saying that more time is needed.

A woman who worked for the RAC and the director of a claims company to which she transferred the details of people who had been in accidents, have received suspended prison sentences.

A group of claimant and defendant representatives and judges has outlined a range of concerns about next year’s whiplash reforms, including claims management companies exploiting injured people.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has fined a marketing company £250,000 for making over 365,000 nuisance calls asking people about accidents and pretending to be from their insurer.

Talks about a reverse takeover of NAHL Group – the owner of National Accident Helpline – by fellow listed company Frenkel Topping are to continue into the New Year, they announced today.

Just 18% of claimant personal injury solicitors say their firm has settled on a strategy to deal with next April’s whiplash reforms, while most expect behaviours to change under the new regime.

Ministers remain “determined” to implement the whiplash reforms next April, a top official said yesterday, although it is still not certain when the rules governing the process will be published.

The MIB has given the clearest signal yet that the whiplash reforms will go ahead next April as it announced plans to undertake a third phase of consumer testing of the new portal.

Claimant personal injury lawyers have turned to the Lord Chief Justice to support an urgent review of the government’s proposed tariff of damages for next April’s whiplash reforms.