Court of Appeal rules 10% uplift in general damages to start April 2013
Industry News : 3 August 2012
Clearing up the confusion surrounding the Jackson reforms, The Court of Appeal has ruled that from 1st April 2013, a 10% uplift in general damages will start.
The 10% uplift was part of the original whiplash reforms suggested by Lord Jackson, but until now, no start date had been announced.
The increase in damages awarded in personal injury cases was designed in order to compensate claimants for having to pay their own success fees and after-the-event premiums. However, under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders act, both of these will become banned.
The start date of the 10% uplift will be coincided with the roll-out of the Legal Aid act.
However, Cost Advocates lawyer Jon Lord has revealed his belief that the uplift start date would have a big impact on insurers, who, as a result, would end up paying more.
He stated, “The Court of Appeal identifies that this 10% increase will not achieve perfect justice, however the immediate injustice that springs to mind is that the increase in damages was supposed to be a trade off for the claimant having to pay his own success fee and ATE premium, if he has one.
“However, the additional liabilities will only be irrecoverable for cases that are issued on or after 1 April 2013 whereas damages will increase for all judgments after that date.
“There will therefore be a considerable overlap period when insurers are both paying the extra 10% in general damages and having to pay the solicitor’s success fee and the ATE premium.”