The Government has proposed a new system that requires claimant lawyers to check the claims history of potential clients before starting cases, in order to combat the growth in ‘crash-for-cash’ fraud.
The new system, proposed by the Ministry of Justice, will prevent a whiplash claim from being started under the pre-action protocol, unless a search has taken place.
To help solicitors determine a potential client’s past, a new ‘IT interface’ will be created that will enable claimant representatives to easily obtain data from insures about the number of whiplash claims a person has made within the previous five years.
In the past the insurance industry and legal profession have struggled to easily share information, but the new proposal aims to find a potential solution to the long-running issue of data sharing between insurers and claimant firms.
The new proposal, if approved, will also see the creation of a new independent medical IT hub, known as MedCo, which will allocate medical experts to claims.
The new system, which will initially be funded and build by the Association of British Insurers, will have built-in filters to ensure the medical expert or reporting organisation does not have a ‘direct financial link’ with the commissioning party.
The Justice Minister, Lord Faulks, said: “Honest drivers should not continue to bear the cost of a system that has been open to abuse and it is time for change.
“Our reforms will create an improved, robust system for medical evidence – so genuine whiplash claims can still be settled but fraud is driven out of the market. “
A consultation has been launched to gauge the views of both professions, which is due to close on 1 October.