The latest from handl Group, who are campaigning for more digital dispute resolution. This could free up a great deal of valuable Court time, where more complex claims can be heard.
handl Group commercial director Chris Chatterton has called for the claims sector to give new impetus to digital dispute resolution following the judgment on mixed injuries (Rabot v Hassam) handed down by the Supreme Court on 26 March.
The call comes as handl Group’s motor claims business, Coplus, talks to insurer clients about launching a new dispute resolution service that promises to settle claims in days. At the moment, thousands of mixed injury claims are currently stuck in the OIC pending the Supreme Court and other claims are taking many months to settle through the platform.
OIC data from Q4 2023 found that more than 35 percent of claims exit the portal because claimants decide not to pursue the claim or the issues of law are ‘too complex.’ Chris Chatterton said the judgment opened the way to cross-industry adoption of dispute resolution for people suffering whiplash plus other injuries following an RTA, as well as a straightforward whiplash.
Chris said: “What all of us want is rapid access to justice for claimants and a means of dealing with the backlogs in the OIC caused by the legal impasse on mixed injuries.”
“Dispute resolution, which is done online, can be completed in days not months and is far less expensive.” he said
handl Group data from its dispute resolution pilots, which trialled with seven leading insurers and eight major law firms, found that settling injury cases with its technology saved over £500 per case, compared to the Courts. Usual court costs were £2120 while handl costs awarded were £1588.
General damages
Comparing results to one insurer’s claims, awards for general damages, the acid test for accurate awarding, were found to be within a few pounds of each other. The cases ranged in. value between £1,250 – £25K, and awards were within a range of £1,250 – £16K.
Average duration
Case duration varied around the UK, but against an average nine months to get to a court hearing from filing papers, the dispute resolution average from filing papers to legally enforceable result was nine days.
Prospects
Chris said: “After many false dawns, I believe the claims industry is ready to embrace the digital age when it comes to settling disputed claims.”
“MoJ ministers and the judiciary support dispute resolution as a partial solution to civil justice delays, and the insurance industry should see it as a hedge against claims inflation, after premiums have risen to historic highs. In three-five years, dispute resolution will be the norm for settling these types of claims, and we’ll wonder why it took the industry so long to adopt it.”
Learn more at https://www.handlgroup.co.uk/
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