Anyone who purchases or benefits from protection from Public, Products and Employers Liability Insurance policies should take note that, with effect from 31st July 2013 all Public, Employer’s and Product Liability bodily injury claims valued between £1,000 and £25,000 inclusive will be dealt with via an electronic portal. This is much like the portal that was introduced in the motor insurance field and will have a significant impact on the handling of these claims.

Why the change? The principle drivers behind this change are speed of resolution and the resultant reduction of costs as it seeks to reduce the disparity of third party costs which are commonly grossly disproportionate to the level of damages paid to the claimant. Some mat say inflated, in fact. All claims handled by the Portal are governed by a “pre-defined fixed cost” which will be much lower than the anticipated costs for claims handled outside the Portal, even for cheap public liability insurance policies.

How does it work?

Claims notification for all Employers Liability claims, the claimants third party solicitors will need to use the ELTO database to identify and ascertain who the relevant insurance company is – once discovered, claims should go directly to the Insurer.

For Public Liability and Product Liability there is no insurer database so there is a possibility that a PL CNF (Claim notification form) could

come to the policyholder/insured/ directly from a third party solicitor

If a policyholder receives a claim notification form they must:

1. Contact the third party solicitor by email and acknowledge receipt of the CNF within 24 hours
2.  Notify their insurer and their Broker, within 24 hours
3. The timescales under the Ministry of Justice scheme require swift action – if they are not met a claim will be removed from the process and significant additional costs could be incurred. Therefore, policyholders and brokers , should act quickly and effect direct communication between the policyholder and insurer but ensure that your broker is copied in to all communications so they can continue to provide advice and guidance in the usual manner.

Those policy holders who have chosen to compare public liability insurance and have used differing insurers, should contact both for the avoidance of doubt if a policyholder is unsure of which part of a policy a potential claim would be covered by.