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MoJ Guidelines - Key stages of new process for RTA personal injury claims
Please click here to download a pdf of the MoJ Process in detail. Feel free to print this out and display it as a visual aid to remind you of the complete process and timescales.
Alternatively for a quick breakdown of the stages please click on the following links to be taken to the stage you require.
Stage 1 - Providing early notification of claims to defendants and insurers
Stage 2 - Medical evidence, offers to settle and negotiation
Stage 3 - Where quantum cannot be agreed
Stage 1 - Providing early notification of claims to defendants and insurers
The claims notification form will be sent electronically to the defendant's insurer and the claimant solicitor or the claimant will sign the statement of truth on the CNF.
The defendant's insurer will send a receipt to acknowledge receiving the CNF.
All the fields on the CNF must be completed with the exception of the referral source field.
When the CNF has been correctly completed, the defendant's insurer will have 15 business days in which to respond - electronically - with theexception of the Motor Insurers' Bureau, which will have 30 days to respond.
Fixed recoverable costs of £400 will be paid at the end of Stage 1 where liability is admitted (whether or not contributory negligence is alleged). A 12.5% success fee will be applied to Stage 1 fixed recoverable costs. However, the success fee element for Stage 1 will only be payable at the end of Stage 2 where the case settles.
Stage 2 - Medical evidence, offers to settle and negotiation
Once the defendant's insurer has made an admission of liability, the claimant solicitor will obtain a medical report.
Where it is clear from the outset that an additional medical report is necessary from a medical expert in a different discipline, a second report may be obtained from a medical expert in that discipline.
The acquirement of medical records will only be allowed as a disbursement where the medical expert has identified a need for them.
There will be no fixed timetable for obtaining the medical report.
Within 15 business days of the report being confirmed as factually accurate, the claimant solicitor will complete the Stage 2 settlement pack form. This will be sent electronically to the insurer, together with the medical report and any receipts/evidence of special damages claimed.
The insurer has 15 business days from receipt of the settlement pack to consider and either accept the claimant's offer or make a counter offer.
Where the defendant's insurer makes a counter offer, there will be a further 20 business days for consideration and negotiation between the parties.
Where agreement on quantum has not been reached at the end of the 20-day consideration and negotiation period, the claimant will prepare the Stage 3 version of the settlement pack form.
Where the parties have not reached agreement to settle the case by the end of the negotiation period, the next step will be a Stage 3 hearing to determine quantum.
Fixed recoverable costs of £800 will apply to all claims taken forward under this process from the beginning to the end of Stage 2. This will
attract a 12.5% success fee uplift where the case settles.
Stage 3 - Where quantum cannot be agreed
Where quantum cannot be agreed by the end of Stage 2, an application will be made to the court to determine quantum.
There will be separate fixed recoverable costs for claimant solicitors for Stage 3 of the process for paper (£250) and oral hearings (£500). There will be a fixed success fee of 100%, which will only apply where the claim concludes at trial and the claimant has won.
Where an offer is made and settlement is reached between the issue of the claim and before the trial commences, fixed recoverable costs of £250 will apply and there will be a fixed success fee of 12.5%. The agreed damages and fixed costs should be paid within 10 days of a settlement being reached.