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United Kingdom Personal Injury Market Trends Report 2019 - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "UK Personal Injury Market 2019: Market Trends Report" has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The UK Personal Injury Market Report 2019 is the fourth edition of an annual market report from the author. As well as exploring key market trends, issues, and forecasts, the report includes profiles of 20 leading personal injury (PI) law firms - 18 with financials - and the results of a PI practitioners' survey.

Here are some selected findings:

  • PI claim numbers are dominated by road traffic accident - RTA - claims and industrial accidents and injuries. The numbers of both these types of accidents have been declining in the last few years and this trend continued in 2018.
  • The PI market, including clinical negligence claims, is valued at almost 4bn a year but annual value growth remains weak. The market increased in value by 2.4% in 2018 compared to 2017.
  • Consolidation is gathering pace in the PI sector as smaller firms and PI teams leave the sector or are purchased by larger players. Legislative changes on their way in April 2020 are likely to drive even more consolidation as the larger players can invest in new technology, improved case management systems, marketing, and acquisitions to deal with the changes. These changes include an increase in the small claims limit, fixed recoverable costs for whiplash claims, and a new online portal for claims submitted by individuals.
  • Smaller players are cleaning up their case files and WIP ready to sell to other firms but it is a buyer's market and fees paid for existing files are likely to be lower than sellers expect.
  • Leading PI claimant brands are high volume litigation services. Specialist firms like Bott & Co, Express Solicitors, Hudgell Solicitors, and Winn Solicitors have grown into top 200 law firms in 2018 and they are targeting the top 100. Fletchers Solicitors is already there after targeting the top 100 five years ago. These firms have joined leading PI brands Irwin Mitchell, NAHL Group, Simpson Millar, and Slater & Gordon as the leading PI players. Some insurance companies - Admiral, BGL, and DAS - now own PI legal brands and can control the entire claims process.
  • David Mort states that the larger firms have identified a route to navigate the regulatory changes and this involves investment in IT and improving operating efficiencies, coupled with reducing their dependency on RTA claims, moving towards more high-value claims and expanding related services such as rehabilitation services. Most of these firms also have the financial resources to cope with the changes. Competitive pressures are increasing for smaller firms and they just don't have the financial leeway to change their business models.
  • An analysis of the latest financials from 10 leading specialist PI firms shows that profit margins are relatively modest - around 6% margin - and margins are likely to be much lower for many smaller firms. Costs associated with an investment in new technology and re-engineering case management systems have impacted on profits for the larger players in the last year.
  • Despite the financial pressures noted above the same percentage of practitioners in the author's PI Practitioner Survey 2019 - 60 firms surveyed - are optimistic about workloads in the next 12 months as in the previous survey in 2018. However, it is still less than half that are expecting workloads to increase in the next 12 months.
  • The author expects the PI market value to decline in value terms in 2020 as the small claims changes have an impact. Once the market has aligned itself to the new landscape, the market should see some modest value growth.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Executive Summary

  • Introduction
  • Market characteristics
  • Regulatory changes in 2020
  • The number of RTAs and industrial accidents/injuries still in decline
  • Limited market value growth again, and declining work volumes
  • Goodbye to some firms, opportunities for others
  • The future - PI firms bracing themselves for 2020 and beyond
  • Optimism amongst Pl injury practitioners is the same in 2019 as 2018

2. Introduction

  • Definition
  • Abbreviations

3. Market Structure

  • The main types of personal injury work
  • Four main market participants
  • The number of solicitors and legal companies
  • The number of claims management companies continues to decline

4. Market Developments and Drivers

  • Overview
  • Strategies of PI firms for regulatory changes starting in 2020
  • Increase in small claims limit, FRCs and online portal for individuals almost here
  • Extending FRCs to other claims
  • Post-legislative review of LASPO - concerns about damages-based agreements
  • Medical reports - changes announced in September 2019
  • The Ogden Rate changed to minus 0.25% in August 2019
  • Stronger regulation of claims management companies from FCA
  • Client satisfaction lower for PI firms than all law firms in 2018
  • Improvement in lawyers sticking to cost budgets

5. The Key Players

  • Overview
  • Selected Players
  • Admiral Law Ltd
  • Bolt Burdon Kemp
  • Bott & Co Solicitors Ltd
  • DAS Law Ltd
  • Express Solicitors Ltd
  • First4Lawyers
  • Fletchers Solicitors
  • Neil Hudgell Ltd
  • InjuryLawyers4u
  • Irwin Mitchell Group
  • Leigh Day
  • Lyons Davidson Ltd
  • Minster Law Ltd/BHL (UK) Holdings
  • NAHL Group/National Accident Helpline Ltd
  • Redde/NewLaw Solicitors
  • Simpson Millar LLP
  • Slater and Gordon
  • Stewarts Law LLP
  • Thompsons Solicitors LLP
  • Winn Solicitors Ltd

6. Market Size and Trends

  • The number of RTAs in decline
  • Self-reported workplace injuries are declining
  • Employee injuries reported by employers increased in the latest year
  • The number of serious workplace injuries is also in decline
  • Just over 30,000 cases related to criminal injuries
  • A market valued at almost 4 billion
  • Claims management companies - a declining force in the market
  • The volume of cases registered with the CRU declines
  • Recoveries decrease to 320m
  • Number of PI claims heard in court drops by 13% in 2018
  • Personal injury court cases in Scotland and the new Personal Injury Court
  • Expenditure on NHS clinical negligence claims rises strongly
  • Claims Portal figures

7. The Future

  • April 2020 reforms about to hit the sector
  • The response of PI firms to the April 2020 changes
  • PI claims after Brexit
  • Market forecasts
  • Personal injury practitioner survey

8. Associations

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/yyajs3

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