Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Hassam v Rabot: Supreme Court confirms whiplash tariff applies only to whiplash; non-whiplash PSLA at common law with Sadler overlap deduction (England and Wales)

Published on: 08 May 2024

Published by a LexisNexis Insurance & Reinsurance expert

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Article summary

What are the practical implications of this case?

The Supreme Court’s ruling deserves approval, as it clarifies that the whiplash reforms leave PSLA awards for non‑whiplash harm untouched in mixed injury claims. That element of the judgment aligns with the plain text and underlying purpose of the reforms, namely to curtail compensation for whiplash alone. Yet the two‑stage methodology ultimately endorsed by the Court is liable to generate significant practical difficulties. It obliges judges to trim the overall PSLA to reflect any overlap between common law damages for the non‑whiplash injury and the statutory tariff for the whiplash injury. The tribunal must attempt this balancing act in the dark, because, as the Court appeared to accept, there is no means of identifying what slice of the tariff corresponds to the overlapping component of PSLA. The sole steer supplied by the Court is that this slice is smaller than it would have been had damages for whiplash PSLA been valued at common law. On that footing, one would infer that any reduction should be restrained, acknowledging the tariff is compressed and the overlapping PSLA is small versus a common law valuation, so the court’s adjustment ought, accordingly, to be modest, that...

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