On 28 March the Public Bills Committee heard evidence from Brett Dixon, of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, Rob Townend of Aviva and James Dalton of the Association of British Insurers. The context was legislative scrutiny of the whiplash measures to be found at part 5 of the Prison and Courts Bill currently proceeding in the Commons. Opening the evidence session, Sir Oliver Heald MP, Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, asked this question: “In recent years, since 2005, we have seen a fall in the number of road accidents, we have seen safer vehicles and we have seen a more than 50% increase in whiplash-related claims. Can you put this in perspective and tell us what you think the problem is and whether you think our tariff system is going any way to solving it?”
Tag Archives: APIL
Commons Justice Select Committee – oral evidence session on whiplash reforms
On 7 February, the Justice Select Committee heard evidence from the Association of British Insurers represented by James Dalton, Director of General Insurance Policy, and the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers represented by its President, Neil Sugarman into the proposed whiplash reforms set out in the Ministry of Justice’s consultation issued in November 2016.
Compensating for fatal accidents and for indirect mental illness
If you needed a reminder of the controversy associated with different levels of fatal accident damages across the constituent jurisdictions of the UK, The Times’ daily legal bulletin The Brief today includes a comment piece by APIL President Jonathan Wheeler entitled “MPs must increase bereavement damages”. His article also address perceived deficiencies in how English law controls liability for secondary psychiatric harm.
