A word of caution following the ABI policy statement.
Whilst any consideration of the ways to reduce accidents and injuries should be applauded I would suggest a word of caution whenever the body that represents insurers isssue a policy statement.
We must remember that the whole of the vehicle insurance market has just been referred to the competition commission by the Office of Fair Trading as it seen as “dysfunctional” leading to unreasonably high premiums. I believe that this is unfortunately just their way of fighting back and trying to justify their profiteering.
Many claimant lawyers such as myself feel that the insurers have had it their way for far too long and are now having their anti-comsumer practices unearthed. This started with the review of referral fees being paid by solicitors for injury cases that was thought to be fuelling an increase in spurious claims. The Government were surprised that the main culprits were found to be the insurers themselves and have now banned the practice from April next year.
The referral to the Competition Commission may uncover further anti competitive practices but until the report is published, which is expected to take up to 2 years, the Insurers will continue to try to justify their ever increasing premiums.