UK government delays whiplash reforms

The UK government has delayed the introduction of changes to The Civil Liability Act 2018, to August 1, 2020. The reforms are designed to curb the number of whiplash claims and the associated costs.

What are the reforms?

The reforms, implemented by The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) are a number of changes to the personal injury claims.

These changes include;

1. a legal definition of what constitutes a whiplash injury,
2. a tariff of fixed compensation for whiplash injuries of up to two years,
3. a ban on offering to, or settling whiplash claims without medical evidence. 
4. an increase in the small road accident claims limit from $1000 – $50000

What will it mean for claimants?

You only need to take a look what’s happened here to see how things are going to turn out in the UK because, in Australia, we have already been through similar reforms. In New South Wales and Victoria, especially, the reforms have made it almost impossible for a claimant to make a lump sum claim for a whiplash injury.

What will it mean for law firms?

Again, just as we have seen here in Australia with a huge decrease in listed firms stock prices, the reforms are likely going to severely impact UK law firms and CMC’s bottom lines. In fact, since the Government announced it’s proposed new changes the share price of  NAHL Group PLC has dropped by more than 50%.

Is there a way around the reforms?

The average payout for a simple soft tissue injury claim in the UK is around 3300 pounds. This means that most claims ate going to fall around 40% short of meeting the new threshold.

Psychiatric injuries

It’s likely that the UK will experience an unprecedented rise in psychiatric injury claims as this could certainly be one way of getting claims over the threshold.

Are you entitled to whiplash compensation?

• International Legal News