Amanda Stevens asks whether upcoming reforms signify the dawn of a brave new world
For many years now there have been “preliminary discussions” among interested parties about streamlining lower value claims but the government’s consultation paper; Case Track Limits and the Claims Process for Personal Injury Claims published on 20 April 2007, resulted in a frenzy of activity from all stakeholders. The list of respondents runs to 13 pages. Some thought the issues were so complex that the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) had decided to effectively “park” them when there was still no government response a year later.
However, in July 2008 it published guiding principles for the new reforms and have subsequently hosted numerous confidential stakeholder gatherings to thrash out which will in effect be a wholly new process for resolving road traffic claims valued at up to £10,000. No one should mistake the new process as a Predictable Fees Regime Mark II as it represents a complete departure from the existing Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) process. Much training will need to be undertaken as well as technological reform between now and implementation
