By Nuvalaw launches claims resolution platform in joint venture with Trust Arbitration following successful pilots InsurTech Nuvalaw and ADR specialist Trust Arbitration have launched a ground-breaking claims resolution solution, which couples Nuvalaw’s tech platform and Trust Arbitration’s specialist arbitrators to provide swift, quality assured online ADR of personal injury claims in addition to Nuvalaw’s suite of digital negotiation and document management tools. Personal injury (PI) claims that have reached Stage 3 on the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Claims Portal or developed into liability or quantum disputes on the Official Injury Claim portal represent a major issue for insurers, claimant lawyers, and claimants.
The average time to settlement for personal injury claims in 2019 was 40 weeks, but in 2020, owing to the impact of Covid-19 on the courts, the waiting period increased to 62 weeks. Nuvalaw’s new tech platform and Trust Arbitration’s ADR service provide a solution for these and other disputed PI claims. The cloud-based platform handles all aspects online through to final settlement and can reduce claims resolution times from the 400+ days required were the claim to be settled in court to 3-days or fewer.
The platform works by enabling insurers, third-party administrators, claimant law firms and other organisation representing claimants to resolve disputes by digital negotiation and then, if necessary, referring the claims to online arbitration. The arbitrators review claims and make legally binding awards. Arbitrators resolve claims on the basis of documents submitted (an asynchronous and therefore faster process) or via online hearings. Willie Pienaar, Chief Executive of Nuvalaw, said: “There is an urgent need to speed up the resolution of claims and reduce costs relating to these cases, which have suffered further delays due to the pandemic. Our proven technology is in place and the process is very straightforward to ensure that claimants, law firms, and insurers can resolve these cases much more quickly and cost-effectively.” Tim Wallis, director of Trust Arbitration and its associated company Trust Mediation, said: “We have coupled the infinitely flexible ADR process and proven technology to deliver online dispute resolution. Our arbitrators are carefully selected, trained and monitored to provide the same high quality and demonstrably impartial outcomes as a court, but more quickly, more simply and less expensively on a slick, user-friendly platform.”
The platform’s launch follows successful pilots, which ran with two top ten UK insurers and five law firms. One of the pilots was with Minster Law, who said that ADR will eventually become the standard for finalising cases where settlement cannot be reached directly with an insurer. This was based on their preliminary findings with the new claims resolution solution and a UK Tier One insurer, where PI motor claims were much more swiftly settled, with the quickest settlement time being just 24 hours.
For immediate publication 15 June 2021 “ADR delivers justice quickly, so it makes sense for customers, but also for insurers and for law firms,” said Shirley Woolham, CEO of Minster Law. “It has the capability to become the standard means of settling volume claims and we are glad to have sponsored this pathfinding project.” Nuvalaw’s platform, which works seamlessly with the MoJ’s Claims Portal and Official Injury Claim portal, demonstrates that quality assured ADR can deliver justice quickly, with binding settlements, leaving courts free to focus on more complex issues. This not only makes sense for claimants and those representing or assisting them, but also for insurers, typically saddled with court fees and enormous delays in processing, which leads to distorted reserves.
2. About Nuvalaw
Nuvalaw, a LegalTech focused on the insurance sector, is the provider of a ground-breaking online claims resolution platform, that facilitates the online negotiation and arbitration of claims, delivering a simpler, lower cost process and better outcomes for personal injury (PI) claims for insurers, claimant law firms, and their customers.
The cloud-based platform works by enabling insurers, third-party administrators, claimant law firms, and other organisations representing claimants to resolve disputes by digital negotiation and document management, and then, if necessary, referring the claims to online arbitration. Nuvalaw has developed their online ADR platform in partnership with Trust Arbitration, whose arbitrators review claims and make legally binding awards, resolving claims on the basis of documents submitted (an asynchronous and therefore faster process) or via online hearings. In UK pilots, Nuvalaw and Trust Arbitration have reduced the average time to settlement, with binding agreements down from 400-days to an average of 3-days, saving between 30%-50% of costs.
3. About Trust Arbitration
Trust Arbitration, an associated company of Trust Mediation, specialises in Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), to resolve disputes outside the judiciary courts. They have partnered with Nuvalaw to provide high quality, specialist and impartial arbitration services on the platform, delivering to insurers and claimant lawyers outcomes they would obtain in court, through a simpler, cost effective, and speedier process. Arbitration decisions or awards are legally binding on both sides and enforceable in the courts.
4. MoJ statistics
The latest MoJ (source) statistics found that the mean time taken for small claims and multi/fast track claims to go to trial was 51.2 weeks and 73.9 weeks, 14.1 weeks longer and 13 weeks longer than the same period in 2019, respectively.
For further information contact: Simon Hayes, M.D. NextGen Communications
simon@nextgencomms.com M: +44 (0)7771 516544
Trust Arbitration following successful pilots