Prior to April 2010, if you had been involved in a road traffic accident and you were pursuing a claim for compensation, the other side were allowed a period of 21 days to acknowledge your claim, and a further three months in which to investigate it.
What this meant was that a straightforward low value road traffic accident could potentially take 9 months or more, when in truth, it could be resolved far sooner – possibly within a month to 6 months. The Ministry of Justice acknowledged this, and in April 2010, introduced a new system to deal with low value road traffic accident claims with a value below £10,000. The new protocol means that the negligent third party’s insurer must now admit or deny liability within 15 days of you making your claim – once the final claim pack is submitted to the insurers, a period up to 35 days is the normal amount allowed for the claim to be settled. Ultimately, claims that were taking up to 9 months to finalise can now be settled in around four to six.
A year on from the inception of this new protocol for low value personal injury claims, it has become apparent to us at The Injury Lawyers that we are seeing earlier admissions of liability and we have been able to settle our clients claims much more swiftly. So, if you have been involved in a road traffic accident, this should be encouragement enough should you be having any doubts about making a claim for compensation. Here is a brief guide to the process.
Your solicitor will firstly submit your claims notification form which details all the particulars of your accident. This must be submitted electronically, and the other side have one working day in which to acknowledge your claim. They then have a period of 15 days in which to admit or deny liability. Upon an admission of liability, your solicitor will request that a medical report is obtained and disclosed to the other side and offers to settle will be made. In most cases you claim will be settled within 35 days from sending the report to the insurers – in rare cases, if may be that the Courts assistance is required to settle the claim.
The new system really is that simple; so there is little reason why, if you believe you have a potential claim, you should not go ahead with it. This is especially so where you instruct a quality injury lawyer like us at The Injury Lawyers who will never charge you a penny for your claim. You truly have nothing to lose, so get in touch today for some free, no obligation legal advice today!
