Road traffic accidents, injury claims and the electronic portal

The electronic portal process for quickly dealing with road traffic personal injury claims came into force on 30th April 2010.

Imogen McMillan, a Solicitor at Frettens dealing with injury claims, expains "The process deals with injury claims worth between £1,000 and £10,000 and applies fixed recoverable costs and a fixed success fee to the three stages of litigation. The portal provides a fast electronic transfer of all claim documentation between the claimant’s lawyers and insurers / compensators. This enables decisions to be communicated swiftly. It reduces costs and enables the parties to agree settlement much more quickly."

Claims are elibible for this process, providing the accident occurred in either England or Wales and the claim is between £1,000 and £10,000. The value of the claim is based on the level of general and special damages, but not including damage to the vehicle. Failure to wear a seat belt is also taken into account but not other forms of contributory negligence.

Claims which were thought to qualify for the scheme but then turn out to be worth less than £1,000 (or more than £10,000) will be taken out of the portal process and dealt with under the appropriate court rules. When a case leaves the process, it cannot rejoin and fixed recoverable costs will not apply. Claims involving employer’s public liability fall outside the remit of the scheme. Complicating factors such as the death of a claimant or defendant, a bankrupt party or someone who lacks capacity to start proceedings are also not included in the portal process.

The Ministry of Justice is now considering expanding the scheme and raising the upper claims limit from £10,000 to £25,000 or above. This proposal is contained in a consultation paper on reforms to county court actions, published on 29th March 2011. Contact us for further information on the electronic portal or any type of accident or injury for which you may have a compensation claim.