The EL/PL portal one year on

It is just over one year since the introduction of the EL/PL portal and the associated new claims protocol, which were supposed to cut the cost of personal injury claims. So how has the portal performed over the last 12 months? Peter Wilson of Garwyn assesses whether it has met expectations.

From practical experience, we have found the portal broadly fit for purpose, although it does require a certain amount of expertise and it has limitations. For example, it would benefit from an improved navigation capability and the facility to ‘undo’ or recall input errors before they are irrecoverably transmitted.

After 12 months in action, portal claims numbers have risen to a level where they are probably close to levelling out. This means that we are now better placed to analyse performance data. Clearly there is still an inevitable weighting towards newer claims, meaning that we do not yet have a sufficient amount of settlement data to draw any firm conclusions about overall spend.

However, according to portal company data, the industry-wide portal retention rate has steadily declined, and 63% of all portal claims had already exited the process by the end of June 2014. Unless this trend is reversed, we may find that under a third of all portal claims are concluded within the portal.

Initial unfamiliarity with the portal and the new rules is a likely contributory factor, which should improve over time. Another is that disease claims are generally incompatible with protocol timescales, leading to a very high exit rate and creating a strong argument for a specific disease protocol which recognises the inherent challenges. However, even if disease figures were excluded, the current retention rate would still be under 40%.

But as costs on cases which settle outside the portal are still relatively lower than pre-portal days, does this low retention rate really matter? Undoubtedly yes.

The majority of liability claims are settled, in part or full, thus overall retention which is significantly less is a missed opportunity. The present levels indicate that far too many cases are slipping through the net by exiting the portal unnecessarily. If this proves to be a long-term trend, insurers and their corporate clients will need to re-examine whether they are achieving the right balance between portal retention and allowing cases to exit for the right reasons.

It remains to be seen where the national retention level settles over time and what consequences this will have for stakeholders.

Peter Wilson is a director at liability specialist Garwyn, part of the Davies Group

Peter Wilson - Garwyn, part of the Davies Group