Despite insurance being fundamentally built on partnerships, the personal injury sphere has long been described as ‘adversarial’ – why has it been so hard to work together?

By Associate Editor Katie Scott

The Covid-19 pandemic has certainly changed the landscape for personal injury claims.

Yes, remote medical examinations and their use in helping to progress claims during the lockdown period has been helpful, but more specifically I’m talking about the culture shift that has inundated this section of the insurance market.

Katie Scott_bw_path

Katie Scott

War-strewn battle lines between claimant and defendant parties have been neatly eroded as both sides instead unite to combat the larger operational and financial threat – coronavirus.

Speaking at the ABI’s virtual motor conference this month, Martin Milliner, general insurance claims director at insurer LV=, described this action as a “laying down of arms”.

He continued: “The protocols and agreements reached with claimant lawyers and insurers around not suing each other during the process of lockdown is testament to the new collaboration that seems to have developed as a trend between insurers and claimant lawyers over the last few months, which is real pleasant out turn from the adversity.”

From a law firm’s perspective, Shirley Woolham, chief executive of Minster Law, told me that “the collaboration with insurers is a key trend”.

She added: “Covid created the necessary burning platform to cut through the unhelpful adversarial nature of the insurance claims world and the collaboration that was created by all parties was really refreshing.”

The insurance sector is built upon its people, with collaboration and relationship building being two of the most vital cornerstones the market has.

Therefore, it seems slightly odd to me that collaboration is only now being cited as a prominent trend within the personal injury arena.

Both Milliner and Woolham said that the pre-coronavirus personal injury environment was adversarial, but I struggle to think how this could possibly benefit claimants, except perhaps where potential fraudulent cases need investigating – which may be more of a problem now due to opportunistic fraud driven by the coronavirus-led economic recession.

This description certainly paints a picture of a rather money-centric, Scrooge-type character pre-pandemic, where genuine claimants are left swiveling between arguing law firms and insurers, just waiting for their payout.

Woolham said “any roll back from the collaboration now would be an absolute travesty” and I agree – especially as I have my own pending personal injury claim, which has been ongoing for over a year now.

If all the parties can progress claims successfully and collaboratively amid an unprecedented national pandemic, then it should certainly be achievable post pandemic too.