The Association of Consumer Support Organisations (ACSO) has questioned whether the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has lost its grip on civil justice after ministers failed to meet their own deadline for responding to the July 2023 consultation on revisions to the medical reporting process for road-traffic accident (RTA) claims.
Matthew Maxwell Scott, executive director at the trade body, which represents the interests of consumers in the civil justice system, has written to Civil Justice Minister Lord Bellamy at the lack of progress in setting new recoverable disbursements for medical reports, which have stood at £180 for the last decade.
He said the MoJ excused the delay by saying it was too busy on the review of the Personal Injury Discount Rate (PIDR), which begins form ally later this year.
Mr Maxwell Scott said: “I can’t believe that one of our major departments of state is incapable of completing more than one task at a time. To miss a deadline is bad but to miss one that you set yourself looks careless in the extreme.”
Turning to the proposals, he said: “The MoJ has proposed a £30 increase to £210, but eight months later we still await a definitive view. In the meantime, inflation has eaten into the costs of preparing medical reports, so firms are struggling to cover their overheads, risking consumer detriment for hundreds of thousands of injured people wanting to get their claim settled.
“The proposed increase is well below what it should be to take full account of inflation, so the only crumb of comfort from this wholly avoidable delay is that the MoJ may rethink the proposals and uprate the reporting fee to a more appropriate level of £240-£260.”
In a letter to Lord Bellamy, Maxwell Scott pointed to the extremely tight margins involved and said there is a risk of further market exit by medical reporting organisations, reducing consumer choice and threatening to erect a significant barrier to access to justice.
He said: “Even the ABI says insurers have ratcheted up motor premiums by 30 per cent in the past 12 months, but the organisations on whom injured people rely on to progress their claim have no such leeway. If insurers were restricted to 2014 prices, the average premium would be £340, instead of the average £561 reported by the ABI in 2023, a difference in insurers’ favour of £221.
“The relentless squeeze on claims costs by an alliance of the government and the insurance industry has been disastrous for consumers, with the financial benefit accruing to insurers’ shareholders when results are reported later this quarter.”
He added: “All we’re asking for from the MoJ is a level playing field. The entire structure of fees and disbursements in civil justice is a mess. Some fees have stayed static for years, while others are subject to statutory review. Some costs are uprated for RPI, others for SPPI; there are no clear rules.
In his letter to Lord Bellamy, Maxwell Scott concludes: “The current, inconsistent approach to reviewing disbursements, fees, fixed recoverable costs and other monetary standards is creating avoidable uncertainty and a lack of sustainability in civil justice as a whole. This damages confidence in the system, leading to firms making understandable decisions to delay or cancel plans for investment."
The consultation, which states "a response and next steps document will be published in January 2024", can be seen at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/revisions-to-the-medical-reporting-process-for-road-traffic-accident-claims/revisions-to-the-medical-reporting-process-for-road-traffic-accident-claims