Legal News – The government would like to see more pre-action initiatives like the Official Injury Claim portal as part of its vision for the future of civil justice, according to minister Heidi Alexander.
Minister Alexander addressed the Civil Justice Council’s National Forum on Access to Justice in London last week.
Ms Alexander had laid out five core principles for the future of civil justice and stressed that the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) did not see it as “the poor relation of criminal justice”. The first of the five core principles for the future of civil justice was cited as being “access to justice for all”.
The second principle was to look at justice “more broadly, whether in court, out of court or with the use of digital tools”.
Ms Alexander explained: “We want a system that allows people to get the right support to resolve their legal issues fairly at the right time, ideally as early as possible in a way that works for them. We want a system that people can understand because, if we’re honest, we don’t have one at the moment.”
She added that this fairer system meant also encouraging “good-quality, early legal advice and support and alternative dispute resolution”.
Ms Alexander added: “If cases do proceed to court, we want to explore the development of more pre-action services similar to the Official Injury Claim portal, which has seen nearly 900,000 low value road traffic accident cases registered in three years since its launch.”
The third core principle was that “the future is digital”, so that people could access legal services online “in the way we all access other services such as banking and shopping”.
Ms Alexander added that the fourth core principle “has to be improving efficiency across the system” and the fifth principle was to “harness the power of tech to make sure our courts and legal services are modern fit for the future and remain the global gold standard”.
Government’s whiplash reforms are having long-lasting effects.
Data from the government’s Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU), was obtained by the Association of Consumer Support Organisations (ACSO) and the data showed that motor injury claims dropped to an all-time low of 76,678 for Q3 2024, an 11% decrease from the same period in 2023. This continues the downward trend seen in January to June 2024.
The reforms have garnered plenty of criticism, including that they ignore complex claims and that 90% of claimants who use the Official Injury Claim portal still feel they need to use legal representation to navigate the system but are prevented from doing so due to the withdrawal of personal injury firms, due to the fixed lower fees on offer.
Despite the fact that solicitors, personal injury specialists and consumer groups all argued that the reforms only benefited the insurers and that there was no guarantee of cheaper premiums, which the government cited as its chief motivation for the reforms, the reforms went ahead regardless.
Whilst the whiplash reforms and the launch of Official Injury Claim appear to have reduced the number of low-value road traffic accident-related personal injury claims, they do not appear to have had any effect on lowering insurance premiums.
Minister Heidi Alexander ignores Official Injury Claim Backlog
Despite Minister Heidi Alexander heaping praise on the Official Injury Claim as being the saviour of the legal system she failed to mention that 90% of claimants who use the Official Injury Claim portal still feel they need to use legal representation to navigate the system but now are unable to get legal representation due to the reforms capping fees.
Minister Alexander also failed to mention Ministry of Justice (MoJ) was investigating the backlog of cases at Official Injury Claim.
Such was the backlog, that although the Official Injury Claim was launched in May 2021, that by the end of 31 September 2023, around 385,000 claims that were started on the system since its launch, more than two years prior, still remained unresolved.
Hardly a model vision for the future of civil justice.
Quite incredibly then that not even 72 hours having passed since Minister Alexander addressed the Civil Justice Council’s National Forum on Access to Justice in London, Ms Alexander was then ‘promoted’ to transport secretary earlier today, after Louise Haigh stepped down over a criminal conviction.
Justice Committee concerned about Official Injury Claim
The Chair of the Justice Committee, Sir Bob Neill MP (Con, Bromley & Chislehurst), said of the Official Injury Claim (OIC) backlog:
“The Committee welcomes the MoJ’s commitment to investigate in detail the timely progression of claims following concerns raised in our report on the workings of the OIC Service portal.
However, it is disappointing to see that unresolved claims now stand at around 385,000 – a 10% increase on the figure cited in our report. It is incumbent on the MoJ to examine the reasons for this and the Committee awaits the publication of additional data early next year relating to the impact of dormant claims on outstanding claim volumes.
One of the objectives of the OIC portal was to simplify and speed up the process of making a claim for whiplash injuries and it is vital that becomes a reality for all those using the system both represented and unrepresented.”
