For example, when a letter of claim is submitted to a Defendant in a common accident at work, occupiers case (like in a supermarket or shop), claim due to defects on the highways, or product claims for example, the other side has 21 days to acknowledge the letter of claim under the pre-action protocol for personal injury. Once it has been passed to whoever will be dealing with the case, usually an insurer, they have three months to investigate a claim. So, generally speaking, the other side has just under four months in theory to respond with a decision as to whether they will pay you out for the claim or not.
Some may respond quickly, leaving you knowing whether the other side intends to defend the claim at an earlier stage; whilst some may well take the entire timeframe just to come back to us. Some may not respond at all – in this case we can issue an application for pre action disclosure against them to force them to respond with the power of a court order. This unfortunately will add time to the claim, but at least it’s something we can do to force a response in the event they fail to respond. An application, if successful, is costly for insurers; so it’s within their interests to respond in time!
For most road accidents the claim is under the road traffic accident protocol, which involves the electronic submission of a claim form to the insurers who then have 15 business days to respond with their liability decision. Failure to do so can result in the claim falling back in to the pre-action protocol for personal injury claims, which increases the cost burden for insurers. Again, the incentive for insurers to respond is a matter of cost to them!
There are other time frames, such as 21 days to make an offer when a medical report is submitted to the other side, or court deadlines for the exchange of evidence if a case becomes litigated. If you have a good solicitor like us, we will make sure that deadlines are adhered to, or appropriate action is taken! We do have to show a degree of leniency before considering taking them to court – for example, giving them an extra 14 days after the three months investigatory period for a response, as this can help us to succeed with court action if it’s necessary.
Insurers are ultimately very busy and will often miss deadlines. We lawyers are here to make sure they stick to them, or take appropriate action if they don’t. So if you have a law firm, hopefully they are doing all they can to speed up the insurers. But bear in mind that insurers are not always as ‘on the ball’ as we lawyers are. If you’re dealing with them directly and they are proving to be somewhat slow, you should really be getting a lawyer to deal with the case.