Civil Liability Bill [HL]

Explanatory Notes

Overview of the Bill

1. The purpose of the Bill is to reform the claims process for whiplash claims with injuries lasting up to two years resulting from road traffic accidents and to make changes to the way in which the personal injury discount rate, applied to lump sum awards of damages for future loss, is set.

2. The Bill is in 3 parts:

Part 1 concerns the claims process for those suffering from whiplash injuries. It subjects damages for pain, suffering and loss of amenity for whiplash claims to a tariff and requires medical evidence to be obtained before such claims are settled.

Part 2 makes provision regarding the personal injury discount rate. It introduces a requirement for regular reviews of the rate and specifies whom the Lord Chancellor, who sets the rate, must consult in conducting a review. It also changes, for the purpose of setting the rate, the level of risk that an investor of damages is assumed to be willing to take in investing his or her lump sum award of damages for future financial loss from "very low" to "low".

Part 3 contains general provisions that apply to the Bill: it makes the necessary legal provision for the short title of the bill, the extent, orders, regulations and parliamentary procedures, and powers to make consequential, incidental etc. provision.

 

Prepared 20th March 2018