INTRODUCTION
In the 30 months between March 2021 and September 2023, RPI inflation has raised general prices by 27% – about as much as prices had risen in in the previous 10 years. The last period of such sustained inflation was in the 1970s, when the UK was hit successively by the OPEC crisis and by protracted industrial strife. The rate at which inflation is increasing appears now to be slowing, but inflation looks set to remain above the Bank of England’s target rate for some time yet. Simultaneously, civil cases are taking longer to resolve. Fast and Multi-Track cases took an average of 75.9 weeks between issue and trial in 2022, compared to 52.7 weeks in 2009. For such a claim decided in September 2023, RPI inflation will have risen by 16.4% since the claim was issued. Personal injury lawyers have long been able essentially to ignore inflation, because it would at most affect the value of their claims by a couple of percentage points. But inflation cannot be ignored in this sector any longer …
€ (Westlaw)
David Green, ‘How inflation impacts everything (but especially claims)’ [2024] Journal of Personal Injury Law (1) 28.
Leave a Reply