MASS sees whiplash opportunity

The Motor Accident Solicitors Society (MASS) has urged all parties to grasp the opportunity presented by delays to the whiplash reforms.

Speaking with Post, Simon Stanfield, chair of MASS, said, ‘We are in the eye of the whiplash reform storm. The early General Election may have put a halt to the legislation, but this is almost certainly only a temporary delay. The force of the legislative storm will reappear sometime after 8 June and this short period for calm and reflection will have passed. It should not be wasted.

‘Until the second version of the Prisons and Courts Bill is published, probably in an amended form to include, among other things, the government’s view on the future of the discount rate, there is an opportunity. This should be grasped by everyone in the sector, insurer and lawyer alike, before it is too late.’

MASS has labelled the proposed reforms as ‘unfair and fundamentally flawed in their rationale’, but has vowed to continue its efforts to engage the government and the insurers to ‘mitigate some of the worst of the consequences of the reforms as they stand’.

Simon declared, ‘Choppy waters are undoubtedly ahead. We should take full advantage of this lull in the storm.’