The Government has announced the date whereby medical experts who want to provide initial reports into whiplash cases need to be accredited by.
1st January 2016 is the date set by the MoJ and before that they will need to register with MedCo by the 6th April 2015. The experts wanting to get involved will also be asked to complete a survey on the MedCo website by 4th January next year.
There is still much controversy over the decision to introduce accredited experts which claimants will be forced to choose from as personal injury lawyers believe it infringes on human rights to tell an accident victim that they can’t use the medical expert they prefer.
Earlier this month, there was also embarrassment for Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor Chris Grayling, as he was forced to admit he had got it wrong when he told the ABI that medical experts only have three months to become accredited or they would be removed from the system.
The introduction of the accreditation scheme for medical experts was introduced along with other amendments to the RTA Protocol regarding the way whiplash claims are dealt with.
Other amendments included lawyers now having to make checks on previous claims of potential claimants and inserting unique reference numbers on all Conditional Fee Agreements sent on or after the 1st June next year.