Making A Road Traffic Claim Using The Portal

In April 2010, the Ministry of Justice introduced a new online portal system for pursuing road traffic accident personal injury claims. The purpose of the portal was to speed up the process and make claiming more efficient, ensuring that the injured parties get their compensation as quickly as possible. The portal applies when, the injuries were sustained in a road traffic accident, the accident happened in England and Wales, the accident happened on or after 30 April 2010, the value of the claim is between £1000 and £10,000 and the accident was not caused by a foreign registered vehicle.

The portal operates by the solicitor for the injured party submitting details of the personal injury claim on the online portal in a Claims Notification Form, which is completely secure, to the insurers of the defendant. The insurers of the defendant then have 15 working days from receipt to review the matter and provide their views upon liability, also doing so electronically. The portal system replaced the previous system of submitting a letter of claim to the defendant's insurer and the insurer then having three months in which to provide their views upon liability, either admitting or denying. The new portal system obtains the views upon liability much quicker than the old system.

Once the views upon liability have been established, the next steps depend on whether liability is admitted or denied. If liability is denied or the insurer fails to respond, the claim leaves the system and continues under the old system, so that they have an additional 3 months to investigate liability. If liability is admitted, the claim remains within the online portal and progresses from the initial stage 1 to stage 2, which relates to the gathering of medical evidence. The injured party's solicitor will obtain their GP and/or hospital records and arrange an examination for the purpose of producing a medical report, considering the nature and extent of the injuries.

Once the medical evidence is finalised, the solicitor will submit a Settlement Pack to the defendant's insurer, enclosing the medical evidence and also providing details of the financial expenses, known as special damages. When doing so, the solicitor will propose the value of the claim, essentially stating what the injured party would accept in settlement. The defendant's insurer will then have 15 working days to confirm whether they accept the offer or wish to make a counter offer. Once settlement is agreed, the injured party should receive their compensation within 10 working days.

If settlement cannot be agreed at stage 2, the matter will proceed to stage 3, whereby the solicitor will make an application to the court, requesting that the court determine the value of the claim. Generally with personal injury claim, should court proceedings be issued, a hearing will take place which the injured party will need to attend but under the portal system, none of the parties need to give evidence in court and the judge makes a decision based purely upon the claim documents, namely the medical evidence and details of the special damages. Once the judge has decided, the claim will be concluded and it is again the case that the injured party should receive their compensation within 10 working days.

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