For victims, it is important that compensation is established in a transparent manner and that the amount they receive is comparable to what other victims in the same situation receive.

The Dutch Association of Insurers, the ANWB and Victim Support Netherlands, want to ensure that personal injury victims get clarity faster and easier about what compensation they receive. The organisations expect victims to be better supported in this way. That is why they have signed a letter of intent .

Personal injury cases have a lot of impact. For example, it may happen that the victim has to follow a long-term medical trajectory, becomes permanently disabled or can no longer work. Emotions therefore play an important role in personal injury cases. For both the victim and the liable party, an accident with injury or death is extremely drastic. Contact between the victim and the perpetrator can help with the processing, for more information, see www.contacthelpt.nl.

Claims burden

Every year, insurers handle approximately 75,000 personal injury cases, with a total claims burden of around 1.5 billion per year. This damage burden has increased in recent years (per event). This is partly due to the increase in the retirement age and rising life expectancy. As a result, personal injury victims have to bridge a longer period without income.

Help

If a victim needs assistance, he or she can ask an advocate or legal expenses insurer. It is important to use a qualified representative who is knowledgeable. A list of qualified representatives can be found in the NKL register.

The University of Utrecht has, on behalf of the Personal Injury Council, conducted research into long-term personal injury cases. This shows that things are indeed open for a long time, but no one can be blamed for that. The top 3 reasons why a case is open for a long time consists of:

1. The lack of a medical end state (44%). This means that the injury has not yet recovered sufficiently to be able to properly visualize the consequences for the future.
2. The causality question (24%). It is not always clear whether the complaints that someone has are caused by the accident, have a different cause or perhaps already existed before the accident.
3. The extent of the damage, and in particular aimed at the loss of work capacity. It is often difficult to properly map out what the working life of someone would have looked like without an accident.

The results of the research of the University of Utrecht are in line with previous research commissioned by the Association by the Platform personal injury (PPP). This shows that about ninety percent of personal injury cases are handled within the target period of two years. Delays mainly occur in complex cases where recovery is a long-term process. For example, if there is a serious brain injury or injury in young children. In practice, it is even irresponsible in such cases to determine the damage within the two-year period.

Initiatives

Insurers and other parties involved have taken important steps in recent years to put the position of the victim even more centrally. These initiatives can be divided into two categories: short(independent claims handling desk) and long-term (reform of the standardisation system) solutions. You can find these below.

Together with the ANWB and Victim Support Netherlands, the Association wants to ensure that personal injury victims receive clarity about their compensation more quickly and easily. They expect injury victims to recover faster as a result. To this end, they have signed a letter of intent.

Think tank Simplified Claims Handling Personal Injury Cases

The declaration also results in the new Think Tank 'Simplified Claims Handling of Personal Injury Cases '. In the coming year, a group consisting of scientists, advocates, loss adjusters and insurers will delve into the question: 'What are the possibilities for a simplified system for settling personal injury cases?'

What is simplification?

The Association advocates a claim settlement in which it is clear to the victim what compensation he can receive. In addition, the way in which the remuneration was established must be transparent. And equal cases should be treated the same, including in cases of advance payment. In other words, it should not depend on the representative or the insurer what amount a victim receives. Of course, there must be and remain room to take into account the specific circumstances of the victim.

Research on simplification

Prof. Michael Faure has conducted international comparative law research at the request of the Association. He has looked at how personal injury is handled in Belgium, Ireland and Sweden, and investigated whether this also leads to simplification of claims handling.

Both personal injury victims and insurers benefit from a dynamic approach to the handling of long-term personal injury cases. Because this is not possible in all cases, the Personal Injury Council has set up an independent disputes committee: Chamber of Long-Term Personal Injury Cases (Chamber LLZ). This Chamber LLZ offers accessible, fast dispute resolution and is independent. The LLZ Chamber consists of a chairman and three members appointed by the board of the Personal Injury Council.

The first cases have now been successfully completed. The parties involved have indicated that they find the speed of action a relief. Victim Support Netherlands and the ANWB are also strongly in favour of the efforts of the LLZ Chamber.

In 2021, outgoing Minister Tamara van Ark sketched the picture that there are interest representatives who provide no or insufficient information, causing delays in the handling of claims. Insurers recognize that image. Unfortunately, because this is not in the interest of the victim. The Association therefore investigates how often victims become victims for a second time due to harmful practices by advocates.

Incidentally, the Covenant is well aware that there are also many good advocates, with knowledge of the facts. Fortunately, the Personal Injury Council wants to ensure a good qualitative representative of victims with a National Quality Mark for Personal Injury , because unfortunately they also have bad practices on the agenda.

Insurers make every effort to help personal injury victims quickly and adequately. If in a situation it is better to first turn to the municipality as a victim in the context of the Social Support Act (Wmo), then that is allowed. Municipalities can recover the costs incurred from the liability insurer.
Sometimes there are also good reasons to point out these better possibilities through the municipality to personal injury victims. An example is that someone can claim an adapted home much faster through the municipality. The municipality is simply better able to offer certain facilities or solutions on a number of points, with or without the help of a declaration of urgency.

Right of return municipalities

If a personal injury victim appeals to the Wmo provisions of his municipality because he has suffered an injury caused by someone else, the municipality may charge those costs to the insurer of the person who caused the accident. When the Wmo was introduced in 2015, the Association and the Association of Dutch Municipalities concluded a remuneration agreement to simplify this so-called recovery process for both the municipality and the insurer. In that agreement, the municipalities' right of recourse was collectively bought off by means of an annual surrender sum. The Wmo conference agreement ended in 2019.

In order to help municipalities with their recourse claim, insurers have made a simple format to fill in in 2019. This 'Wmo notification letter municipalities' has been shared with the VNG and can be found under the heading 'publications' at the bottom of this page.

Extrajudicial costs
Liability insurers and advocates have reached agreement on a new regulation for Extrajudicial Costs (BKB).
This new regulation and associated scale took effect on 1 September 2021 and will continue until 1 July 2024.

Calculation interest is the interest that is used to calculate future damage. If a victim receives a lump sum during the settlement of his case, the (safe) return that can be achieved and inflation are taken into account when determining that amount. Interest is therefore the difference between return and inflation.

In July 2021, two consultative bodies of judges made new recommendations on the interest rate for the handling of long-term personal injury cases.

Code of Conduct for the Treatment of Personal Injury (GBL) and Medical section

Insurers who are members of the Association must comply with the Code of Conduct for the Treatment of Personal Injury (GBL). This code of conduct contains rules for a transparent and adequate handling of personal injury cases. For example, insurers are obliged to be tested by an independent agency once every 1.5 years.

At the moment there is a proposal before the House of Representatives to include compliance with this GBL in the law.

Personal Injury Guidelines

The Personal Injury Guidelines are a tool for determining the damage in a personal injury case. The aim is to achieve a fast and transparent settlement of these claims.
The guidelines are binding on all parties that subscribe to the GBL, unless it is plausible that a situation does not lend itself to application. The Personal Injury Council is responsible for the assurance and enforcement.

Clear communication
In complex and lengthy cases, clear communication with the victim is of great importance. Company Regulation 15: Information in the event of personal injury therefore contains provisions about, among other things, respectful treatment and informing the victim. The regulation also states what the insurer must do if the damage cannot be dealt with within two years.

Sometimes the handling of a personal injury case does not go well and a complaint arises. The complaints procedure for personal injury cases can be complex. The Roadmap for Handling Personal Injury Cases helps victims and indicates the possible route to the Financial Complaints Institute (Kifid) and the Financial Services Disciplinary Board (Assurantiën) of personal injury victims. A personal injury victim can also go to the civil court, but this roadmap does not go into that further.
More information about the complaint options can be found here.

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