Personal injury practitioners have been waiting on tenterhooks for the review of the whiplash tariff regulations.

Personal injury practitioners have been waiting on tenterhooks for the review of the whiplash tariff regulations. They need wait no longer because the review was published on 21 November 2024.

Under the Civil Liability Act, the Lord Chancellor has to set the tariff of damages for whiplash injuries of up to 2 years in duration within three years of implementation. The Lord Chancellor has published her recommendations which I would likely to be implemented in 2025. It is unusual to have a law in place that puts a cap on damages that can be claimed as compensation for an injury. The tortfeasor in such cases benefits at the expense of the victim of the negligence. The idea was to reduce the number of claims, which does seem to have been the case. There does seem to have been an increase in claims for non tariff injuries, for which there is no such cap.

The Lord Chancellor has recommended increasing the tariff by around 15% taking into account Consumer price index inflation to May 2024 and for forecasted inflation to May 2027 as there is necessarily a lag before the figures are again reviewed in three years.

The Chancellor opted to use the consumer price index inflation rather than retail price inflation which is a small victory for claimants. The Lord Chancellor decided to allow a 3 year inflationary buffer as the figures would not be increased for 3 years.

The increases when implemented will be as follows: Table 5

She decided to keep the judicial uplift for exceptional injuries to 20% of the tariff but in practice I have not seen any claims where this has been claimed or awarded.

She decided to maintain the existing split between the tariff for whiplash only and whiplash plus minor psychological injury and has provided additional guidance on defining minus psychological injury which is something that will be helpful as there is no definition.

She decided not to make any changes to the definitions of what medical evidence is appropriate in deciding the awards.

The Lord Chancellor decided that the tariff should continue to be based upon three month prognosis intervals and was not persuaded that there was an increase in the number of 13 month prognosis periods being provided.

It is interesting to note that the highest number of cases involved 3 to 6 month injuries at 45% of cases or 65,341 cases. The lowest number of cases related to the 15 to 18 months and 18 to 24 months prognosis period. These cases only amounted to one percent of the total and 12 to 15 months amounted to 2% of the total number of cases. The majority of cases were to injuries that lasted for up to 12 months.

In respect of minor psychological injuries the Lord Chancellor said that minor injuries should be defined as in chapter 14 of the judicial College guidelines and that’s a second medical report should only be needed if there was a more significant diagnosable psychiatric injury or post-traumatic stress disorder as described in chapter 4 of the judicial college guidelines The minor psychological injuries covered by the tariff should be distinguished from these and officials will consider ways in which further guidance can be provided.

It was noted that Claims volumes overall had reduced by around 50% from pre-reform levels. Taking into account claims between £5000 and £25,000 there have been a reduction of around 45% in Claims volumes.

It was suggested that some compensators provide incorrect tariff offers lower than they would expect based on the medical report and it was suggested that the prognosis period of the psychological injury should be used rather than the whiplash injury as it is longer. The Lord Chancellor was not persuaded by this.

The insurer argued that the tariff should not be increased because this would result in higher insurance premiums but the Lord chancellor was not persuaded by this and felt the balance must be maintained to protect the intention of ensuring claimants received appropriate compensation.

Regarding settlement values the average settlement for whiplash tariff claims was £662 and £1566 for non-tariff injuries.

It will be disappointing to claimants that this is not a review of  is no indication the whiplash legislation which was introduced by the last government after assurances from the insurance industry that car insurance costs would reduce.

The Lord Chancellor specifically says in her report that it is not an evaluation of the whiplash reform program in general or an assessment of its impact on individual claimants the personal injury sector or court activity. However she says that a separate post implementation review of the reforms will be completed in due course following the completion of this review and the implementation of its outcomes. Perhaps therefore Claimants can hope that more major changes might be implemented in future.

In the meantime the Lord Chancellor will now consult with the Lady Chief Justice which will take 8 weeks and so the changes will not come into effect until 2025.