Anthony Gold

Get in touch

020 7940 4060

  • People
  • Insights
  • What to Expect
  • Contact Us
Anthony Gold
  • Services
    • Housing And Property Disputes
      • Property Disputes
      • Leasehold Services
      • Services For Commercial Landlords, Tenants And Agents
      • Services For Residential Landlords And Agents
      • Housing And Tenancy Issues
      • Judicial Review
    • Injury And Medical Claims
      • Life Changing Injuries
      • Medical Claims
      • Personal Injury
      • Child Abuse
    • Family And Relationships
      • Starting Relationships
      • Ending Relationships
      • After Relationships End
      • Useful Contacts
      • Religious & Cultural Issues
      • Family Law FAQs
      • Family Dispute Resolution
      • Modern Families And Surrogacy Arrangements
    • Conveyancing, Property & Business Services
      • Business Agreements
      • Business Disagreements
      • Commercial Property
      • Commercial Property Disputes
      • Leasehold Services
      • Residential Property
    • Wills, Estates & Court Of Protection
      • Wills, Trusts And Estates
      • Claims Against Trusts And Estates
      • Capacity And Court Of Protection
    • Dispute Resolution & Employment Law
      • Personal Claims
      • Professional Negligence
      • Business Disagreements
      • Claims Against Trusts And Estates
      • Employment
    • People
    • Insights
    • What to Expect
    • Contact Us
  • Get in touch

    020 7940 4060

  • Housing and Property Disputes
  • Injury and Medical Claims
  • Family and Relationships
  • Conveyancing, Property & Business Services
  • Wills, Estates & Court of Protection
  • Dispute Resolution & Employment Law
  • Property disputes
  • Ownership disputes and shares in property
  • Challenging the decisions of councils and public bodies
  • Rights of way, boundaries, covenants and easements
  • Party wall disputes
  • Leasehold services
  • Lease extension
  • Collective enfranchisement
  • Service charge disputes
  • Repairs to leaseholds
  • Right to manage
  • Services for commercial landlords, tenants and agents
  • Breach of covenant
  • Forfeiture and recovery of possession
  • Dilapidations and failing to repair
  • Lease renewals
  • Services for residential landlords and agents
  • Regulatory issues
  • Repossession
  • Agents (including letting agreements)
  • Housing and tenancy issues
  • Repairs
  • Repossession and eviction
  • Rehousing and homelessness
  • Judicial review
  • Life changing injuries
  • Brain injury
  • Spinal cord injury
  • Amputation
  • Psychiatric injury
  • Fatal injuries and inquests
  • Medical claims
  • Surgical claims
  • Non-Surgical Claims
  • Birth injury
  • Child health and paediatrics
  • GP and primary care treatment
  • Private healthcare
  • Personal injury
  • Road traffic accidents
  • Accidents abroad
  • Accidents at work
  • Faulty products
  • Public liability and other accidents
  • Child abuse
  • Child abuse
  • Starting relationships
  • Pre nuptial agreements
  • Pre civil partnership and same sex relationship agreements
  • Cohabitation and living together agreements
  • Property ownership agreements
  • Ending relationships
  • Divorce and separation
  • Ending a civil partnership
  • Ending cohabitation
  • Agreeing child arrangements
  • Agreeing finance and assets
  • International arrangements
  • After relationships end
  • Abduction and leave to remove children
  • Changing and challenging parenting agreements
  • Changing and challenging financial agreements
  • Grandparents’ rights
  • Useful Contacts
  • Financial planners
  • Referral to Pension Actuaries and Pension on Divorce Experts (PODEs)
  • Tax Specialists
  • Financial Neutrals
  • Counselling
  • Conveyancing
  • Wills
  • Religious & cultural issues
  • Jewish family law
  • Islamic family law
  • Family Law FAQs
  • Children FAQs
  • Cohabitation Agreement FAQs
  • No-Fault Divorce and Separation FAQs
  • Financial Issues FAQs
  • Pre-Marital Contracts FAQs
  • Family Dispute Resolution
  • Roundtable Meetings
  • One Solicitor Solution
  • Mediation
  • Collaborative Practice
  • Arbitration
  • Second Opinions
  • Private FDR’s
  • Early Neutral Evaluation (‘ENE’)
  • Modern Families and Surrogacy Arrangements
  • Domestic Surrogacy
  • International Surrogacy
  • Business agreements
  • Business advice
  • Employment
  • Mergers and acquisitions
  • Supplier contracts
  • Business disagreements
  • Commercial property
  • Commercial Sale and Purchases
  • Commercial loans and mortgages
  • Property Investment: plot developers & plot buyers
  • Auction: sales and purchases
  • Commercial advice for landlords and tenants
  • Planning advice
  • Mortgage debentures and securities
  • Commercial property disputes
  • Breach of covenant
  • Dilapidations and failing to repair
  • Forfeiture and recovery of possession
  • Lease renewals
  • Leasehold services
  • Lease extension
  • Collective enfranchisement
  • Service charge disputes
  • Repairs to leaseholds
  • Right to manage
  • Residential property
  • Residential Sale and Purchases
  • Property Investment: plot developers & plot buyers
  • Remortgages
  • Auction: sales and purchases
  • Ownership matters and transfers
  • Wills, trusts and estates
  • Making a will
  • Applying for probate
  • Distributing the estate
  • Arranging lasting power of attorney
  • Trust advice
  • Tax planning and advice
  • Claims against trusts and estates
  • Contesting a will
  • Losses caused by trustees
  • Capacity and court of protection
  • Appointing a deputy
  • Removing a deputy
  • Arranging lasting power of attorney
  • Gifts and legacies
  • Managing assets under a deputyship
  • Care issues
  • Removing lasting and enduring power of attorney
  • Special educational needs
  • Capacity and court of protection
  • Personal claims
  • Debt recovery
  • Ownership disputes and shares in property
  • Civil and commercial mediation
  • Building disputes
  • Professional negligence
  • Professional Negligence
  • Property Fraud
  • Investment Fraud
  • Business disagreements
  • Building disputes
  • Civil and commercial mediation
  • Claims against directors
  • Contract disputes
  • Debt recovery
  • Directors personal liabilities
  • Employment
  • Professional negligence
  • Claims against trusts and estates
  • Contesting a will
  • Losses caused by trustees
  • Employment
  • Employment
  • Unfair or Wrongful Dismissal
  • Settlement Agreements
Anthony Gold > Blog > Personal injury claims reform gathers pace

Ian Peters

ian.peters@anthonygold.co.uk

Share
  • March 26, 2018
  • Blog
  • By  Ian Peters 
  • 0 comments

Personal injury claims reform gathers pace


The Ministry of Justice announced on Tuesday 20 March 2018 their intention to proceed with the Civil Liability Bill which mainly looked to implement reforms to low value personal injury claims (especially whiplash claims) and the method of calculation of the discount rate. The expected implementation date is April 2019.

The reforms to low value personal injury claims will raise the small claims limit for road traffic accident claims to £5,000 and for all other claims to £2,000. This will mean that there no legal costs will be recoverable for those claims and as a result injured claimants will have in general will have to make claims without legal representation. There will also be measures to reduce the level of damages paid for whiplash injuries by reference to a tariff system. The levels of damages will be much lower than currently awarded. This is all against a background that the level of whiplash cases has been steadily reducing since the introduction of the Jackson costs reforms in April 2013. The Ministry of Justice’s research indicated that £32 million will be saved by insurers from claims which no longer proceed (because claimants do not wish or are unable make claims without legal assistance) and claimant personal injury firms will lose £49 million in revenue. The whole basis is that the insurance industry will save significant sums and that this will be passed onto consumers with reductions in the levels of premiums. The writing has been on the wall for low personal injury claims for some time. If any firms continue to rely on those claims as their main work source then their viability will be seriously tested.

As a catastrophic injury lawyer, my focus has been on the proposed reforms to the calculation of the discount rate. The personal injury sector has had to deal with significant uncertainty since the rate was reduced from 2.5% to minus 0.75% in March 2017. As soon as the new rate was announced the Ministry of Justice confirmed that they would undertake reform to change the way it was calculated. Practitioners on both sides of the claimant and defendant divide have been left dealing with the uncertainty of not knowing what the rate could be at the time of settlement or trial. A claim for future loss could be reduced by as much as 35% with a rate change from minus 0.75% to say 1%.

The Ministry of Justice consider that research shows that the current rate is leading to over compensation as claimants do not invest as the law assumes they do. That contention ignores the views of the select committee who say that their needs to be more proof and research before reaching this conclusion.

In my view the Ministry of Justice’s rationale for the reform is flawed. Historically injured claimants have had to ensure that their settlements last for life and they have had to deal with two significant obstacles in achieving this. Firstly, that it was assumed for many years they were able to obtain a risk-free rate of return on their settlements of 2.5% per annum. Secondly, that their settlements do not take into account inevitable inflationary increases in the costs of their care packages and other needs for example aids and equipment. A claimant would be starting at a disadvantage and would have to invest more aggressively to try and ensure they have enough money to meet their ongoing basic needs.

The basis and the speed of the reforms to the calculation of the discount rate are in my view motivated to placate the insurance industry who have had to pay significant additional funds to injured claimants since the rate was reduced.

The proposed reforms are what were announced last year. Claimants will be assumed to be “low risk” rather than “very low risk” investors. The rate will be reviewed every 3 years by an independent expert panel. The reforms are expected to result in a rate increase to 0.5% or 1%.

  • Tags:
  • Injury & medical claims

Ian Peters

ian.peters@anthonygold.co.uk

Get in touch

Call, email or use a contact form – whichever suits you. We’ll let you know the best person to help you get started.

Call or Email

020 7940 4060

mail@anthonygold.co.uk

No comments

Add your comment

We need your name and email address to make sure you’re a real person. We won’t share your email address with anyone else or send you spam. Please complete fields marked with *.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

code

Related Services

  • Accidents abroad

  • Accidents at work

  • Amputation

  • Birth injury

  • Brain injury

  • Care issues

  • Child abuse

  • Child health and paediatrics

  • Fatal injuries and inquests

  • GP and primary care treatment

  • Non-Surgical Claims

  • Private healthcare

  • Psychiatric injury

  • Public liability and other accidents

  • Road traffic accidents

  • Spinal cord injury

  • Surgical claims

About the author

  • Ian Peters

Meet the team

  • Injury and Medical Claims

Contact Us

Request a Call Back

About Us

  • Accessibility
  • Compliance
  • Responsible Business
  • Equality & Diversity
  • History
  • Our Beliefs
  • List of LLP members

Careers

  • Trainee Solicitors
  • Vacancies

Social Media

  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • View our YouTube channel

Online Payments

  • Payment page through Worldpay

Accredited by

Lexel Parctice
76000Award

Copyright © Anthony Gold Solicitors LLP. All rights reserved. Anthony Gold Solicitors LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales with registered number OC433560 and is authorised and regulated by the by the Solicitors Regulation Authority with registration Number 810601