The Lord Chancellor, Liz Truss, announced to the London Stock Exchange (LSE) last week that the result of her review of the discount rate for personal injury claims would not be announced, as planned, on 31 January 2017. Instead, it was said that the review had taken ‘longer than anticipated’ and so would not be released until February. No specific date in February has been given.
The full announcement can be found here.
Meanwhile, we reported in edition 170 of BC Disease News that the Association of British Insurers’ (ABI) had failed in its attempt to bring judicial review proceedings in relation to the Lord Chancellor’s decision to change the discount rate. The ABI’s grounds for bringing the judicial review were that the government had not completed the necessary foundation work needed to reach a conclusion on the rate. It pointed out that, despite several consultation exercises and an expert panel being convened, no results have ever been published. The High Court rejected the association’s application.
The ABI has now confirmed that it has been refused permission to appeal last week’s decision of the High Court, as well as an interim injunction to stop the announcement.[i]
We will continue to update readers on the progress of the review of the discount rate accordingly.
[i] Neil Rose, ‘ABI’s Efforts To Stop Discount Rate Announcement Come To An End – But There Will Be A Delay’ (Litigation Futures 27 January 2017)< http://www.litigationfutures.com/news/abis-efforts-stop-discount-rate-announcement-come-end> accessed 2 February 2017.