Axa puts settlement offer to Accident Exchange

AXA has made a full and final settlement offer in a bid to settle all its credit hire disputes with Accident Exchange.

The offer is the fourth the insurer has made to the accident management company in an attempt to end its involvement in the latter’s long-running legal dispute over the use of rates evidence from discredited research company Autofocus.

The Court of Appeal found in favour of Accident Exchange in February over four cases involving fraudulent evidence used by insurers in vehicle hire rate disputes. Insurers had been using evidence from Autofocus to rebut claims.

After the hearing, Accident Exchange said damages arising from the four cases were estimated to be in excess of £130m.

In a statement released today, AXA said: “In view of the significant number and value of cases in the claim against AXA Corporate Solutions and AXA Commercial Lines and Personal Intermediary, a decision was made to investigate what alternative rates evidence could be found retrospectively rather than accept Accident Exchange’s claim based on their full commercial hire rates.”

The insurer stated that its offer “sits within the range of settlement that Accident Exchange has previously made clear was acceptable as settlement from other insurers”. In addition, Axa had offered to pay Accident Exchange’s reasonable costs to date.

The company also stated that, while AXA understood Accident Exchange had accepted settlements well below their commercial rates, it recognised that “the burden of evidence in credit hire cases is stacked in favour of credit hire companies”.

“AXA brought forward the evidence that could be found retrospectively but it is clear that in some cases this was unlikely to be enough for the courts,” the company added.

AXA Commercial Lines and Personal Intermediary claims director Chris Voller said: “As our offer is well within their target settlement range and we have agreed to pay reasonable costs, I hope that Accident Exchange will now agree to give us a full and final settlement of all their claims against AXA related to Autofocus.”

The February ruling followed another decision by the Court of Appeal in 2011 that resulted in 27 insurers reaching compromise agreements with Accident Exchange in claims that totalled more than £12m.