President of the Barbados Bar Association Kaye Williams is concerned that personal injury claims are taking far too long to be resolved, with some matters dragging on for more than a decade.
Speaking to the media yesterday at Sandals Royal Barbados in Dover, Christ Church, following a workshop on personal injury claims, she said a combination of systemic challenges was tying up potentially millions of dollars in the courts.
“At the end of the day, it is about the client or the claimant, and what we have found is that there are a number of things that delay the system,” she said.
“One area, of course, is the backlog of cases. That is being actively addressed under this present Chief Justice and we are seeing progress. He has also indicated that trial date and hearing date certainty will be implemented next year, so that once a date is set in court, the matter will have to proceed.”
Williams stressed, however, that one of the most frustrating delays continues to be the preparation of medical reports, which are vital to the settlement of personal injury matters.
“We appreciate that doctors are professionals with heavy schedules, but a client should not have to wait years for a medical report. There has to be a way to bridge that gap with the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners (BAMP) so that injured persons can get these reports in a timely fashion. Too many cases are stalling simply because medical evidence is not available when it is needed.”
Legal fraternity
The Bar president revealed that earlier this year, the legal fraternity met with the General Insurance Association of Barbados (GIAB) and BAMP to address the bottlenecks. “Out of that meeting we are working on developing several protocols, so that both the insurance side and the legal side can move cases forward more efficiently,” she said.
Pressed to quantify the scope of the delays, Williams said: “We are finding that personal injury matters are taking well over five years, I’d say even ten-plus years in some cases. That should not be happening. Too many things are being held up and claims are not being processed in a timely fashion.”
She explained that lengthy delays had knockon effects, with claimants waiting years for compensation and insurers also having large sums tied up. “There is a lot at stake for those who have been injured, for those in the legal profession, and also for the general insurance body.”
Training for attorneys has also become a priority for the Bar, Williams stated. She said that over the past three years the association has placed a heavy emphasis on strengthening practitioners’ ability
to properly prepare claims.
Hugely inflated
“The Chief Justice pointed out that in some instances, claims come in hugely inflated. When that happens, you have to go back to the basics and rebuild the claim, which wastes time.”
Williams stressed that attorneys must be up front with clients about the ranges within which injuries and losses are typically settled. “Sometimes it is not what the client wants to hear, but you can’t continue to hold out for an inflated claim. Understanding those ranges is part of reducing unnecessary delays,” she added.
GIAB president Andrea Walton also addressed the workshop and underscored the importance of collaboration between stakeholders. She dismissed the perception that insurers were deliberately stalling claims to build reserves.
“What we have found is that we now have to collaborate a bit more and ensure that we quantify the right amounts,” she noted.
“We are working with both the Bar Association and the Barbados Association of Medical Practitioners to make sure that the medical reports we receive are adequate for us to make decisions and assist with settling personal injury claims. The customer must remain the priority and we want to settle claims as quickly as possible.”
Walton acknowledged that the slowness of medical reports remained a major stumbling block but noted that protocols were being developed to address this.
“Ms Williams has set an aggressive target for October, and we met last week to discuss and review it. That now has to go back to the various associations for approval, but if I have anything to do with it, I would like to see progress before the end of this year. It is ambitious but that is what we are working towards,” she said.
She cautioned, however, that timelines for settlement vary depending on the nature of the injury and the evidence required.
“Every injury is different, so it is difficult to say definitively how long it should take from the time someone is injured to when the claim is settled. But with these new protocols, we want to drastically reduce the waiting period, especially by speeding up medical reports, because without them, the entire system grinds to a halt,” Walton added. (CLM)
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