Personal Injury/Clinical Negligence

The fixed tariff for whiplash claims should be extended to other injuries to help reduce motor insurance premiums, the Association of British Insurers argued yesterday.

The legal services market will continue to grow in 2024, hitting a turnover of £50bn with a “resilient” corporate law sector boosted by “stronger economic conditions” later in the year.

Whiplash claimants, insurers and their lawyers will be watching the Supreme Court closely tomorrow when it hears the appeal on how to value so-called mixed injury claims.

The Department of Health and Social Care has not yet ruled out the introduction of fixed recoverable costs for low-value clinical negligence claims in April – despite no rules being published.

The Ministry of Justice has launched a call for evidence on the whiplash tariff to inform the statutory review of the figures that it is required to carry out.

Shares in AIM-listed legal services business NAHL jumped 11% yesterday on the back of a positive trading update showing a faster reduction in debt than expected.

Fletchers Group, the serious injury law firm owned by private equity, has continued its expansion by taking on the once-core motorbike work of Macclesfield firm Thorneycroft.

An insurer was not entitled to hold back evidence that a claimant was a friend of the owner of the vehicle he collided with, hoping the claimant would lie about it in his witness statement.

A solicitor who submitted a claim form for far less than the case was worth, in order to avoid paying a large court fee, and later fabricated it to show a higher value, has been struck off.

An increasing number of law firms are ditching low-value RTA claims as a result of the whiplash reforms, having tried and failed to make them profitable under the new regime.

An inexperienced barrister feared seeking the court’s approval to deduct success fees from damages in infant settlement cases but told his employers he had applied for them.

The period between a liability decision and the insurer making a first offer is where the ever-lengthening delays in the Official Injury Claim portal are occurring, the Ministry of Justice said yesterday.

Motor insurers need to challenge the growth of non-tariff injuries among whiplash claimants in court to ensure they do not become the norm, a leading defendant solicitor has argued.

Private-equity backed personal injury business Winn Group continues to buck the market trend, with turnover for the first half of 2023/24 up 35% to nearly £143m.

The lack of detail in the government plans for fixed costs for lower-value clinical negligence cases is “extremely worrying”, with only six months to go to implementation.