‘The Liability Tree’ - Compulsory Motor Insurance, Routes to Recovery & Rights of Recourse

Introduction

Compulsory motor insurance is intended to ensure that an innocent victim of a road traffic accident has a route to compensation.

This webinar examines what happens when that principle is tested. Using a single factual scenario, it traces the possible routes to recovery through the contractual insurer, the RTA insurer, an Article 75 insurer, the MIB, and a personal claim under Monk v Warbey.

By altering one fact at a time, it shows how responsibility for the claim can shift and how the applicable legal framework changes with it. It also considers the rights of recovery that arise between insurers, insureds and the MIB once compensation has been paid.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

• The obligation to insure under ss.143-145 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and the ‘liability tree’ that decides which insurer or compensation scheme is responsible for meeting the claim
• What may lawfully be left uninsured, including the effect of s.156A on private land from 28 June 2022 and the position of e-scooters
• Policy avoidance and the position of passengers following Colley v MIB, the 2019 Regulations and the removal of directly effective Directive rights
• Ghost brokers, vehicles taken without consent and cases involving drivers acting in the course of employment or deliberately injuring the victim
• Untraced drivers and claims arising from accidents abroad following Brexit
• Recovery rights between insurers, insureds and the MIB, including the operation of ss.148 and 151(8), Article 75 disputes and the MIB's powers under clauses 14 and 15
• Automated vehicles and the Automated and Electric Vehicles Act 2018
• Practical pleading and procedural issues, including the service of a s.152 notice