MoJ claims process

The number of medical reporting organisations on the MedCo system has shrunk by a third in only eight months, it emerged last week. By the end of August 2018 there were 78 MROs in the system, compared with 120 at 31 December 2017.

There is confusion over whether solicitors can seek medical records for free by making subject access requests under the General Data Protection Regulation. The issue is becoming increasingly prominent, with the British Medical Association set to lobby the government over it.

Claimant lawyers are wrong to argue that product liability claims fall outside the protocol for low-value public liability claims, a defendant solicitor has said. Claire Laver said the scope of the protocol was clearly set out in its rules and included specific exceptions.

A High Court judge has allowed a bus company’s application for committal proceedings to go ahead against two former claimants who said they had serious whiplash injuries from a minor traffic collision, when CCTV showed otherwise.

A leading insurance company that had to appeal to the High Court to secure a finding of fundamental dishonesty in a personal injury claim said the case showed the industry needed “more support” from judges if they are to challenge fraudulent claims.

Premium increases, a fall in injury claims and the release of reserves for large claims due to an “improved outlook” on the discount rate made 2017 the best year for motor insurers since 1994, new figures have shown. They also predicted that motorists would save £35 from the Civil Liability Bill reforms.

The medical reporting agency that has come out of the other side of being swallowed up by Quindell has announced its intention to capture 100,000 instructions a year by 2021, which would give it more than 10% of the market.

Aviva rejects around one out of eight whiplash claims because they are suspect or fraudulent, the insurer said today. It is currently investigating nearly 17,000 personal injury claims for suspected fraud – 1,000 more than last year.

The Law Society has encouraged solicitors to consider taking action against insurers who settled personal injury cases directly with their clients without paying their fees. It comes following yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling, which upheld the Court of Appeal ruling that Haven Insurance should pay Gavin Edmondson Solicitors what it was due.

A personal injury solicitor who herself suffered a whiplash injury has urged fellow practitioners to step up challenges to inaccurate medical reports and report them to MedCo on every occasion, after finding her own report riddled with errors. She said the faults in the process made it inevitable that claimants would face allegations of dishonesty.