Minster Law Criticises Civil Liability Bill, Scope is Too Wide

We’re always even-handed here at Insurance Edge, so here’s a response from Minster Law on the subject of the Civil Liability Bill. If you have a comment on the proposed reforms to whiplash claims then post a comment below – all points of view welcome.

Commenting on the publication of the Civil Liability Bill, Michael Warren, managing director of Minster Law, said:

“The government’s desire to crack down on insurance fraud is a principle we support, but we are concerned that the Civil Liability Bill will tip the balance in favour of the insurance industry, at the expense of injured people who will not be able to access legal advice.”

“The scope of the Bill is too wide, in that it sweeps up all road users, including vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, motorcyclists and horse riders, who never receive whiplash injuries if they have an accident on our roads.”

“Under the current measures, a motorcyclist who breaks their collar bone after riding over a pothole and falling off their bike will be entitled to more compensation for their injury than a motorcyclist who gets exactly the same injury if they are ‘doored’ by a car driver.  We hope MPs will resolve these inconsistencies in the draft legislation.”

“Since 2011, the government has introduced 13 separate pieces of regulation in the claimant sector. Those regulations are having a significant effect and 2017 saw a significant drop in the number of RTA-related claims.”

“It makes sense for the government to assess the impact of previous regulation, such as LASPO, on the market, before ploughing ahead with new law that has a such a significant and negative effect on the historic rights of the ordinary man or woman in the street.”

“Minster Law supports alternative proposals that, we believe, strike a better balance between consumer interests and the need to reduce frivolous claims than this Bill does, and we hope MPs and Peers will press ministers to consider this fairer approach during the Bill’s passage through Parliament.”

Insurance Edge Editor Comment;

It seems astonishing to say that bikers cannot sustain whiplash injuries, or make claims for such injuries. If you are parked at lights and a car hits you from behind it is exactly the same type of injury as a car driver would suffer. It’s also true that once off any motorcycle you have no control over how you land, or which parts of your body suffer twisting, or compression, during impact. I know this as I have crashed motorbikes – and I can tell you it hurts, all over!