On 17 October the Claims Portal, the electronic communications solution used by solicitors and insurers for processing personal injury claims released its first data since the breadth of its activity was widened as part of Lord Jackson’s reforms of the claims process. The data was released as a quarterly update of the portals management information and is available to download here.
The data for the period 31 July to 31 August 2013 shows that there may have been some initial difficulty. The data is split into three sections; Employer Liability Claims (EL) involving disease, EL claims involving accidents and Public Liability Claims (PL) involving accidents. It shows that accident claims were those most likely not to be successfully processed. Of the 200 EL accident claims entered onto the system in August 39% broke down in some way and could not be processed. From the 375 PL accident claims entered 124 or 33% could not be successfully processed. The figure for the EL disease claims was 26%. Across the three roughly 40% of personal injury claims entered on the portal existed the process before completion.
The main reason given for the exit, ‘other’ begs further explanation as it hides a multitude of issues that have been experienced by those using the system. The second most used reason for a claims exit was that the claim was duplicated in the system. This is an issue that the claims portal was supposed to minimise, as greater transparency and clarity were key considerations in its creation. Some of the claim exists appear to be due to administrative errors; two claims failed due to incomplete Claim Notification Forms (CNFs), three claims were below the minimum £1,000 expected pay-out to qualify to use the system and 56 were duplicate claims. These errors will no doubt decrease as stakeholders become more familiar with the process and its requirements.
There is also evidence from the data that corroborate the aim of Lord Jackson’s reforms to tackle compensation culture. Of the 20 claims which were withdrawn from the process the majority were found in in EL and PL accident claims cases. As these claims were not stopped from progressing due to their complexity, or as further investigation was required they could likely have been spurious claims. Also the year on year figures show a 2% increase in claims being entered in July, the last month under the old system, and a 15% year on year decrease in claims during August.
It is still very early in the day for the new Claims Portal process, with only one month’s worth of data to go from. It does show that there have been some teething issues experienced by stakeholders using the system for new claims, but this is bound to be the case with a change in administration procedure and should decrease as familiarity grows. The next quarterly update will provide data that will show a fuller picture of the expansion of the process and whether the moves made to reduce compensation claims are being successful.
Contributed by Paul Rooney Legal, personal injury claims specialist solicitors in North West England.
