PI Brief Update

Justice Committee publishes interim report on the operation of the Official Injury Claim (OIC) Portal - Nancy Kelehar, Temple Garden Chambers

31/10/23. Last month, the Justice Committee published their report entitled ‘Whiplash Reform and the Official Injury Claim Service’. This report is written as part of an inquiry launched in February 2023 in response to concerns raised about the initial operation of the Official Injury Claim (OIC) Portal. Since 2021, the online portal has aimed to allow individuals who have suffered minor injuries arising from road traffic accidents to claim compensation without the need for legal assistance in doing so.

The OIC Service was introduced alongside other reforms to the area of personal injury compensation including:

• the introduction of a legal definition of whiplash injury;
• an increase in the upper threshold for the small claims track from £1,000 to £5,000 (meaning legal costs for claims valued below the new limit are no longer recoverable from the compensating insurer except in limited cases);
• a ban on the settlement of claims without the provision of medical evidence; and
• the introduction of a new tariff of fixed compensation for whiplash injuries.

The report recognises that issues have already arisen in relation to the methodology for calculating damages for mixed injuries (i.e. whiplash tariff and non-tariff injuries) which represent around two-thirds of claims. This issue is the subject of the case of Hassam v Robot which is likely to be heard in the Supreme Court in early 2024. Given this ongoing litigation, the Committee has paused its inquiry, but the purpose of its recent report is to raise some concerns in relation to the operation of the OIC Service to date.

The report raises issues in respect of the following:

1. Use of the OIC portal by litigants in person: whilst the portal was designed for use by individuals without legal representation, over 90% of users are represented.

2. Technical issues for professional users: the portal has failed to adequately interface and integrate with other systems leading to inefficiencies and potential delays in settlement of claims.

3. Unresolved cases and timeliness: there is a growing number of unresolved cases in the portal (which currently stands at 349,000) and the average time taken to reach settlement is 251 days and is expected to increase further.

4. The cost of motor insurance: the Government estimated that the whiplash reform programme would reduce the cost of providing motor insurance by more than £1.2 billion and that these savings would be passed on to policyholders through lower premiums. However, the cost of motor insurance has continued to rise with insurers citing external factors.

The interim report calls on the Ministry of Justice and the portal’s operator, the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB), to conduct effective investigations and research to better understand the reasons for the above issues, how these concerns can be addressed, and for the Government to be as transparent as possible in undertaking its statutory assessment of the effects of the reforms on policyholders.

The full report can be found here.

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