Motor accident compensation laws "fall short of EC standards"
National laws on compensation for motor accident victims in the UK fall short of European Community law standards, a personal injury expert has warned.
Consequently, lawyers working in this field could find themselves exposed to professional negligence claims, according to Nicholas Bevan, director of enablelaw.
The failure to implement EC law has been thrown into “sharp focus” by two recent—and conflicting—Court of Appeal decisions, he says.
In Churchill Insurance v Wilkinson [2010] EWCA Civ 556, the passengers, who were insured, allowed an uninsured driver behind the wheel. Delaney v Pickett [2011] EWCA Civ 1532 involved a reckless driver who was found to be in possession of a large amount of cannabis. In both cases, the insurers argued the accident victims had breached their policy terms and were therefore not entitled to a payout.
According to Bevan, the national courts do not take sufficient account of the European Motor Insurance Directives and accompanying European jurisprudence.
“What the Delaney and Wilkinson appeals demonstrate is that the compensatory safeguards provided to victims of road accidents under our national law are inadequate,” he says.
“They are arcane and difficult to decipher, contrary to European law and thus in need of urgent revision. In the meantime, for those practising in this field without a firm grasp of these issues, it remains an area of potential exposure to professional negligence claims.”
A series of articles by Bevan for NLJ on motor accident compensation will begin later this month.
