Deborah Evans questions the rationale behind the proposed portal extension
The consultation on the extension of the road traffic accident (RTA) claims process has left many of us confused. It’s hard to provide the answers when the questions keep changing. We are asked to suggest a new fixed-fee for claims within the portal (with a strong hint that it should be lower) for cases between £1,000 and £10,000, while at the same time hearing reports that the government is thinking of raising the small claims limit to £5,000 for personal injury cases. We know this would effectively empty the portal of all its existing claims because we know from data that 97% of claims which settle in the portal settle for under £3,500.
Hidden problem?
So where have the rest of the claims gone? Perhaps they settle outside the portal—after all, 47% of claims exit the system. Is it just that claims over the value of £3,500 require more work, taking in special damages and loss of earnings, or that they are uneconomic under the current “one size fee fits all”
