A leading defendant firm has predicted that the personal injury claims will return to the levels that they were being made from before Jackson reforms, claiming not enough had been done to discourage the ‘have-a-go’ culture in the UK.
Keogh’s Director of counter-fraud strategy, James Heath acknowledges that the Jackson reforms, which were introduced in April 2013 had taken effect on the number of claims being made, with figures posting a 5% drop in numbers on the number of claims from the previous year.
But he remained confident that this would not be a permanent decrease and that claim levels would soon be on the rise again, especially as insurers are being put under pressure to process claims quickly.
Writing in Keogh’s annual fraud index Heath said: “There has certainly been evidence since introduction of the reforms that the claimant supply chain has been disrupted.
“However, in our opinion, it is highly unlikely that such disruption will be permanent. Some clients are already reporting that claims frequency is approaching pre-reform levels, and many insurers are predicting that it will stabilise at between 95% and 100%.”
Heath also took aim at the introduction of QUOCS, claiming that they encouraged people to make claims that were suspect, on the whim that defendants are now forced to ask the court to find ‘fundamental dishonesty’ to recover their costs.
He said: “Without robust clarification on what constitutes ‘fundamental dishonesty’ – which seems to be unlikely in the short term – there is little to dissuade a ‘have a go’ approach.”
Keogh’s fraud index revealed that Birmingham remains the number one hotspot for motor fraud in the UK, with East London following it.
There was better news for Liverpool as for the first time since Keogh’s started producing the report in 2009, they were not present in the top five and had fallen to number 14 overall.