Accident Exchange scores spot rate court win

Accident Exchange has won the latest stage in its long-running legal battle with defunct rate-setting company Autofocus over allegations that it manipulated credit hire spot rate data.

Lord Justice Aiken ruled in the Court of Appeal yesterday that the accident management company could appeal on four cases, in which it alleges that Autofocus provided evidence on credit hire spot rates that was incorrect and potentially fraudulent.

Autofocus supplied a number of motor insurers with reports on credit hire rates until it went into administration last year.

The cases in question are William Craig Thomson v S Landsdowne; Sharon Seatroy v D Oliver; Glen Sharples v Peter Brown and Puru Shothaman v Isran Malik.

In all four cases, which were heard yesterday, Aiken ruled that there was sufficient merit for Accident Exchange to appeal. He also said that a further eight outstanding cases, which are currently before county courts, can be referred to the higher court for appeal.

Commenting on the judgement, Accident Exchange Group chief executive Steve Evans said: “Given the issues we brought to the attention of the Court of Appeal in these cases, we expect the courts to be much more cautious in the weight they give to evidence from ‘rate experts’. We hope that in future cases, insurers and defendant solicitors will now properly examine the veracity and accuracy of evidence they deploy.”