Many of us
have spent the last few weeks watching the election campaign. So it might have
been easy to miss one news item which seems to have slipped in under the radar.
This is the announcement from the AA Insurance that motor insurance premiums
are set to rise. And according to a report in the Daily Mirror, the cause of
the increase is…yes you guessed it … fake whiplash claims!
It makes
you begin to wonder how much blood insurers can get from this particular stone.
This is a
saga which goes back more than two years. In 2013 we saw drastic cuts to the
rights of victims of motor accidents. These included slashing the amount of
legal fees recoverable from insurers, causing many victims to lose up to 25% of
their compensation.
The
Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) and others took judicial review proceedings
at the time to try and block the cuts. Although that action failed, it was
clear from the evidence that the government and the insurance industry had
worked closely together on the project.
The
rhetoric and the attacks have continued relentlessly. We have seen report after
report on the need to clamp down on claims. Just this month, victims have lost
the right to instruct their own medical experts and to use a panel of approved
doctors. The fees payable to such experts have also been cut.
All of this
has happened against the background of rhetoric designed to make any victim of
a motor accident feel like a criminal.
Back in
2013 all of us who pay high motor insurance premiums were told that these steps
would see a drop in price.
Former MOJ
Minister Helen Grant explained the thinking behind the cuts –
“These proposals were advanced in a consultation exercise
which closed on 4 January (2013) and, together with wider civil law reforms,
are intended to make lawyers’ costs proportionate, and create an environment
where insurers can pass on savings to their customers through lower premiums.”
Most of us
were sceptical that we would ever see any reduction. I must confess I thought
that we might get a pre election series of cuts. Instead, we have this news of
premium rises, when we all have our eyes somewhere else.
The reality
is that we were never going to see any significant drop in the cost of motor insurance.
The government and insurers have very effectively squeezed the life out motor
claims. You would have thought that they could have come up with a more
imaginative excuse for further rises.
At One-Stop-Law we recognize that every Personal Injury claim is different. We are passionate in ensuring that every whiplash claims that we accept is actively pursued to the highest professional standards. That is why we only select the best legal professionals to represent our customers. We ensure that the legal professional we appoint to represent you is appropriately qualified and experienced to deal with your claim.
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