HH Judge Platt reports on the latest twists in the RTA claims industry
Lawyers who deal with motor accident claim cases will be well aware of the Titanic struggle which has now been raging for years between the motor insurance industry and the providers of vehicles for hire on credit to those whose cars have been damaged in road traffic accidents. Indeed claims for credit hire now form a significant part of the workload of the judges dealing with Fast Track trials.
Ingenious defence lawyers have continued to run various lines of defence against these claims. Equally ingenious claimant’s lawyers have been arguing for hire charges which usually dwarf the modest claims for whiplash injuries and in turn are sometimes dwarfed by the claims for costs. Most of these arguments are fact specific but most have been bitterly contested with what appears to be little sense of proportion on both sides and a surprising lack of realistic Part 36 offers. But these cases also give rise to important issues of law on which the insurance industry has had some notable successes. Dimond v Lovell
