Your Legal Friend UK Drivers and Road Traffic Accidents Survey

ComRes interviewed 1003 UK drivers who have been involved in one or more road traffic accidents (RTAs) in the last five years online, between the 4th and 9th October 2013.

Date Published: 27 Nov 2013

Categories: Public and communities | Public Sector | Social | UK

Description

Innocent victims of road traffic accidents are at risk of being denied access to justice if the Government progresses its proposed reform to increase the threshold for the Smalls Claim Track for personal injury to £5,000. A new report “UK Road Traffic Accidents: a drivers’  view” commissioned by Your Legal Friend has found that three quarters (73%) of the UK personal injury victims surveyed who pursued legal action for a road traffic accident in the past 5 years could not have afforded to pay for a solicitor out of their own pockets.

The research, of 1,003 UK drivers, was commissioned to shed light on the injured parties’ perspective on the Government’s proposed reforms. It revealed those who had limited access to justice are more likely to accept settlements which are worth less than the compensation they could be entitled to. Furthermore two fifths (38%) of the survey respondents, who made a RTA claim, believed their settlement was not fair and 11% who had an accident had no idea what compensation they should receive.

The UK Road “Traffic Accidents: a drivers’ view report” also investigated whether a compensation culture really exists amongst road traffic accident victims. Only 5% who estimated that their injury was worth no compensation say they took legal action after their RTA. Furthermore just 16% of drivers who sought medical advice following an accident did so as proof they had an injury for insurance purposes, whereas over half (52%) saw a medical professional because they were in pain.