How Personal Injury Claims Will Change with Brexit?

Brexit will be the most significant event in the modern history of the UK. However, it will also bring some confusion and mess for various industries and individuals. The insurance sector is still figuring out the ways in which it will cope the EU-UK divorce. As various EU directives on policy are revoked in 2019, citizens will have to navigate through uncharted territories, especially with personal injury claims.

We talk to medical negligence solicitors from Tilly Bailey & Irvine Law Firm to explore the effects of this event on the personal injury claims and what could change with Britain’s divorce from the EU. The Directives and Regulations applied to EU nations prescribe the minimum requirements of compliance and standard practices in various business activities. Now that UK will move away from these regulations, it will have to draft some new laws and directives of its own.

The laws that change because of UK divorce

For personal injury claims, three laws from the EU primarily apply to the UK citizens.

The 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act

This act guarantees minimum standards of safety and health requirements that should be followed by businesses across the EU. The act seeks to protect both workers as well as visitors of a workplace. The act is based on the European Framework Directive on Safety and Health at Work.

The Consumer Protection Act 1987

A 1985 EU Directive lays the foundation of the Consumer Protection Act 1987. This act allows protection to consumers against defective products or services. It has a set of associated regulations that can provide safety to the consumers and allow compensation in case of an injury.

European Sixth Directive

The Sixth Directive of 2009 provides assistance to anyone who experiences personal injury caused by an uninsured derived within the EU. The Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) of the UK will handle the claim. It will likely compensate the party and then reimbursement from the EU member state where the accident took place.

UK residents also enjoy access to the European Health Insurance Card (Ehic) which provides them state-sponsored healthcare where never they are in an European Economic Area. UK residents have 27 million Ehic cards. The cards have helped the residents get additional insurance protection apart from their travel insurance cover.

How will your personal injury claims change?

The UK will have to create new laws that could handle personal injury claims within its territories. However, unless UK makes its own laws, the EU laws will likely be in force. These laws will not case to exist automatically in 2019. The Ehic scheme will still be providing benefits to the British pensioners. If these pensioners have retired in a EU stat and wish to travel to another member state, thy will be able to use their Ehic card for getting medical attention.

The UK will likely fill-in the footsteps of the EU regulations. The new regulations could be replications of the EU laws only, which could help Britain in avoiding confusion. Many UK politicians have suggested that the ‘claims culture’ is hurting the insurance industry. Section 69 of the Enterprise Act 2013, comes in direct conflict with the EU regulations related to employer’s breach of health and safety regulations.

As we can see, the condition of the personal injury claims will depend largely on the appetite for change in the government. The UK will stumble upon many issues like this till 2019. To keep things simpler, the government will likely choose to hold the EU laws uptight instead of creating its own new laws in a hurry. Whatever the immediate result of UK’s exit from EU be, labor and personal injury laws will certainly change according to domestic political and industry pressure in the UK post-2019.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32810887

https://www.ashfords.co.uk/article/impact-of-brexit-on-personal-injury-claims

https://www.hughjames.com/news/comment/2016/08/effects-brexit-upon-personal-injury-law/#.WbJb3MiGOUk

https://www.ashfords.co.uk/expertise/brexit-2/brexit-personal-injury

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/aug/31/brexit-healthcare-deal-is-good-news-for-pensioners