Beachcroft LLP has been commissioned to advise on the Bodily Injury Awards Study, a research project backed by the ABI and International Underwriting Association of London (IUA).
The law firm was involved in the three previous studies, which looked at trends in bodily injury awards.
Beachcroft partner Paul Parke, who is a member of the legal working party for the project, said: “Although it is only four years since the last study, there has been no let up in the pace of change in personal injury law. Among the legal factors that we'll be assessing will be the introduction of periodical payments, rising care claims and the continued evolution of the Civil Procedure Rules."
Ninety per cent of UK motor insurers have been invited to contribute towards the study, which will investigate the overall level of claims escalation, detailed analysis of inflationary trends in size of claim, uncertainty margins in run-off, the impact of rising legal costs and settlement patterns among other matters.
The 2003 study, which was based on an analysis of over a million personal injury claims, concluded that the cost of bodily injury claims to UK motor insurers had risen by nearly 10% per annum over the past decade, a total of 117% claims inflation. The 2007 study will report on the extent to which this inflationary trend has continued.
