A new scheme for road traffic accident (RTA) claims, designed to speed up the process of settling claims,  has come into effect. It covers low-value RTA claims (those between £1,000 and £10,000) and is a dramatic change to the legal process.

The scheme involves completing a form online at the ‘RTA Portal’. Insurers have 15 days after the completion of the form to admit liability: if the insurers respond in time, a ‘stage 1’ payment of £400 will be made to the solicitor within 10 business days.

The idea is that this will allow more cases to be processed more quickly. In practical terms, this speeding up may not be in the best interests of the claimant, however, as (for example), expert medical examinations undertaken too soon may miss downstream complications that would have been discovered had the examination taken place later.

At the final stage in the process, the ‘hearing’ can be simply based on the written submissions or an oral hearing limited to submissions (i.e. with no cross-examination).

It remains to be seen how this new system will work in practice.