Will I have to go to Court for my Personal Injury claim?
- Article
- 26 Sep 2017
If yours is a motor vehicle case these days it is very rare to have to go to court. Most cases settle by negotiation with the insurer and those that don’t go to what is known as CARS which stands for the Claims Assessment and Resolution Service. This is an informal dispute resolution system where a solicitor or barrister, who acts as a judge, but is known as an assessor, hears your case and decides how much compensation you should be awarded.
If there is no dispute on liability the decision of the assessor is binding on the insurance company but if you don’t think it is enough you can appeal to a judge in the District Court.
However we find in practice there are very few such appeals and almost all our cases finalise at the CARS stage or even earlier.