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Judicial College Guidelines Update – March 2024
Judicial College Guidelines – 17th Edition
The much-anticipated 17th Edition of the Judicial College Guidelines has now been released, in hard copy at least.
As expected, there is an inflationary increase across all areas with the increase an unprecedented 22%.
This uplift sees large increases for not only the most severe injuries, but also relatively significant increases for more minor injuries.
With the changes made to the recoverable fixed costs regime in October last year this increase will no doubt put pressure on those claims close to the relevant track thresholds as well as claims that would have been fit for either of the Portals.
With Portal claims, in particular in motor injury, this is further complicated with the ongoing matter surrounding the valuation of ‘mixed injuries’ which was heard in the Supreme Court in February as well as the fact the whiplash tariff is also set for review this summer.
The combination of the inflationary increase to injury awards in the guidelines, mixed injury methodology and tariff review will no doubt see more claims reach the relevant Small Claims Track (SCT) limit and therefore qualify for recoverable legal costs.
Within the introduction to the 17th edition there is an instruction that the inflationary adjustment of injury assessments should be an ongoing process, the Bank of England have predicted further falls in inflation over the next two years which will assist in controlling this, but this again will add additional upward pressure to settlements and existing offers.
Claims handlers will need to review current Part 36 offers on claims where offers relied on the figures given in the 16th edition to ensure that adequate costs protection is in place, it may well be that claimant offers also become more attractive to be accepted if not allowing for the uplift.
For those dealing with Portal claims, we may well see a rise in arguments surrounding the issue of value and the wording relied on in the protocols which states a claimant reasonably believes that the claim is valued at above the applicable Portal limit.
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