Justice minister due to make announcement on reforms by end of month.
The ABI has accused the government of wasting the equivalent of 55 million days through its six month delay on reforming the personal injury claims process.
The body is holding a parliamentary reception, where it plans to lambast ministers for failing to move on the reforms, which would significantly cut the amount of time insurers take to handle personal injury claims.
The ABI is stepping up the pressure on the government as it approaches the end of March, when justice minister Bridget Prentice has promised an announcement on the reforms. The consultation on the reforms closed last July, and the government was expected to report back, with a final set of reforms, last autumn.
The ABI’s director of general insurance Nick Starling said: “Millions of days are being wasted, unnecessary costs mount, and early rehabilitation is denied.”
ABI director general Stephen Hadrill, along with shadow justice secretary Nick Herbert and a member of the CBI, will speak at the reception on 25 March.
An ABI spokesman said the move marks increased frustration over the government’s ongoing delays in delivering the reforms. There is also widespread fear in the market that the changes, when released, will be a watered down version of the proposals outlined in the government’s consultation paper because of pressure from trade unions, which oppose the reforms as they stand.
The main areas of contention surround extending the small claims limit from £1,000 to £5,000, implementing set fees for lawyers, mass changes to after-the-event insurance premiums and doing away with referral fees for lawyers.
Doing the maths: How the ABI arrived at its figures
In the past year, 200,000 of the 250,000 personal injury claims due to motor collisions would have been straightforward and non-contentious, the ABI said. It currently takes an average of two years or 730 days to settle those simple claims – or a total of 146 million days. If the governments proposals were implemented now, this would reduce dramatically by 109 million to a collective 37 million days. The figure for the past six-month delay is 55 million.
