Road accidents that take place prior to 30th April 2010 can take a considerable amount of time to run their course. These claims allow the other side 21 days to respond to a Letter of Claim, and a further 3 months to investigate it – so it can take nearly 4 months just to find out whether you have liability admitted or denied on your claim. Getting an admission of liability means that the other side admit fault for your injury, and so is a major hurdle to get over in the course of your claim.
This may mean that many of the straight forward road traffic accident claims are taking a long time to come to a conclusion; meaning claimants are left waiting for information, and claims are left sat on desks waiting to be worked on. In recognition of this fact, the Ministry of Justice have set up a new system of dealing with road traffic accident claims after the aforementioned date.
This new system is all based around an online portal where correspondence is sent and received instantaneously. This means letters are not taking an age to arrive in the post, and gives the other side no excuses to claim they have not received something. The system is based around 3 stages. Your claim begins with a Claim Notification Form being sent out which sets out the accident circumstances. Upon this being sent to the other side, they have 15 business days to respond with an admission or denial of liability (this is in stark contrast to the previous system of nearly 4 months).
Upon gaining an admission of liability, your solicitor will then arrange for you to be medically examined, and will collate all your losses suffered as a result of the accident. Once your medical report has been received, this can be disclosed to the other side in order to settle your claim. In most cases, a settlement figure can be agreed within 35 days of disclosing the medical report and any other losses information.
In the event liability is denied on your claim, it does not mean that it is the end. It may be the case that your solicitor reviews the prospects for success, and can make an informed decision as to whether the claim can continue. They may then issue proceedings at court in order to achieve settlement.
The above is a brief outline of the system – if you require any further information, please feel free to give us a call.
