Changes to Claim allocation - Will this really benefit the Defendant?

The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) are due to be updated with many of the changes coming into force on 6th April 2009. The changes to the Rules in this 49th update can be viewed on the Ministry of Justice's website.

A significant change to the (CPR) in my line of work is to Part 26 and the allocation of cases to the small claims track, fast-track or multi-track dependent on the value of the claim.

The small claims track applies to claims excluding personal injury where the claim's value is less than £5000 or where damages for personal injury exceed £1000. This will not be changed.

The majority of personal injury claims however fall within the fast-track, this used to be for claims that fell outside of the small claims track but that did not have a financial value of more than £15,000. All claims with a value in excess of £15,000 were allocated to the multi-track.

Under the updated CPR after 6th April 2009 the fast-track financial limit will be increased to £25,000.

Working within the personal injury sector I envisage some difficulties with this change and would instead recommend an increase to the small claims track limit for personal injury claims, which has been rejected.

Firstly in relation to the increased limit for fast-track claims, a Defendant cannot currently obtain their own medical evidence in relation to the Claimant's alleged injuries unless it is a multi-track case or they make an Application to the Court. Whilst this will not be necessary in all cases, if an injury is complicated or where the Defendant has serious concerns over the nature or causation of the Claimant's injury, obtaining medical evidence from your own expert is advantageous. Unfortunately some medical experts can be biased towards the Claimant (or the Defendant) and others do not provide sufficient reports to alleviate any issues/concerns.

Taking into consideration the increase of the fast-track limit to £25,000 along with the nature and/or complexity of the injuries the Claimant would have to incur to exceed this new limit, I believe that Defendant Solicitors are likely to be disadvantaged.

In my opinion it would be more beneficial to increase the small claims track for personal injury claims. Currently the limit for these is only £1000 and taking into consideration the recent JSB guidance, only whiplash type injuries persisting for less than 1 month fall within this track. With the JSB guidelines increasing the valuations in each revision, should the Court system not increase their banding to match this?

A typical whiplash injury lasts between 6-12 months with a proportion persisting for up to 2 years post accident. With the recent JSB guidance providing for damages in the region of £2750 for a simple 12 month whiplash injury and £5000 for a 2 year whiplash it could be the case that we no longer see any personal injury claims that fall within the Small Claims Track, thus continuing to increase Defendant's Solicitors costs.

I am sure someone from the Claimant side's views would differ...

"Help! I have received a County Court claim form for a road traffic accident"

Working in a solicitors firm within the RTA industry I deal with legal proceedings on a daily basis but if someone who is not familiar with them receives these through the post I can understand that they can be very daunting and quite worrying. Several times this week I have dealt with telephone calls from extremely distressed people who have received a County Court Claim Form in relation to road traffic accidents, some which even date back to 2004 (3 years ago). Some of these people have said that they have been physically sick especially as the form states that they need to respond within 14 days or face judgement against them in the region of thousands of pounds (the amount claimed).

Unfortunately sometimes proceedings are served directly on the insured rather than the insurance company or solicitors dealing with the matter. Should you receive such proceedings I hope that this post helps to alleviate your worries and explains exactly what you should do.

1. PLEASE DO NOT WORRY! The best thing I can recommend is to speak to either your insurance company or a solicitors (if appointed) to advise that you have received a claim form.

2. Usually they will ask you to send the claim form or a copy to them so that they can deal with it on your behalf.

3. If liability for the accident has been admitted then it is unlikely that you will need to do anything further, everything will be resolved by your representatives

Where liability (fault) is admitted the reason legal proceedings would be issued is a dispute over quantum (the value of the claim) or the limitation period is due to expire/has expired (see below for further information in relation to limitation)

4. Where liability is in issue it is likely that you may be required to attend court to give your version of events, however your representatives will be able to explain the process and exactly what is required of you if this is the case so feel free to raise any queries or worries with them


Turning to my above point in relation to "limitation" sometimes claims are not concluded until the limitation period expires. Once people have reported an accident to their insurance company and had their vehicle repaired they tend to forget about the matter. However what the insured does not see is the work that then has to be done by the insurance company or solicitors appointed by them when dealing with a third party claim.

In England and Wales you have 3 to make a personal injury claim - (I am sure you have seen the annoying people in the street asking if you have had an accident in the last 3 years). If a claim is not settled before the 3 year period expires most solicitors issue protective legal proceedings to ensure that their client receives their compensation. If this is not done and a client cannot go on to claim their compensation this can lead to professional negligence being raised.

Once the proceedings have been issued they must then be served within a 4 month period. Therefore if the claim is still not settled within these further 4 months the proceedings will be served (sent) to the Defendant - as mentioned above this maybe the insured rather than the solicitors acting.

I hope the above helps if you are faced with the above. If you have any queries please feel free to ask and I will try and answer them.

Further information about dealing with a claim and the claim form itself can be found at HMCS (Her Majesty's Court Service)