MIB (not Men In Black but the MOTOR INSURER BUREAU)

MWR solicitors provides valuable legal advice and services to unions and their members on all workplace and employment issues.

Union members and their families need more than just employment advice: they drive cars, buy homes, make wills and MWR continues to be a trusted source of help and information. Here, leading personal injury solicitor, Scott Smeaton explains the history, purpose and procedure of the Motor Insurers Bureau.

Despite the fact that since 1930, it has been compulsory to have insurance to drive any type of vehicle on Britain’s roads, Government estimates suggest that well over a million motorists regularly drive without any liability insurance cover. That means the chances of being injured or even killed by someone with no means to compensate you or you family are far from slim.

There will always be some who simply don’t bother to insure but there will be, for example, situations where a driver may cause but not be involved in an accident or where the driver genuinely believed the insurance was valid but it was not. Fortunately by 1937, the ‘gaps’ in the compulsory insurance regime had been identified and by 1946 the Motor Insurers Bureau (MIB) was in place to compensate those innocent victims left stranded by a negligent driver’s lack of cover. Initially the MIB was only empowered to compensate victims of identified drivers, against whom a court judgement had been obtained but which remained unpaid. By 1969, however, those road traffic victims who could not identify the culprit (the victims of hit and run drivers) were also included in the scheme.

By virtue of the Road Traffic Act 1988, all insurers offering motor insurance in the UK must pay a levy to the MIB to cover the cost of such claims. The size of the levy depends on the company’s share of the motor insurance market. Insurance companies, as we know, are not renowned for their generosity and not surprisingly therefore the cost of the MIB is passed-on to the motorist via motor insurance premiums. The principle that insured drivers subsidise those who don’t bother to insure may be abhorrent but bear in mind that any driver who calls on the MIB for compensation will not receive anything if they themselves don’t have a valid policy. Some justice perhaps – and good reason not to ignore the renewal quote. The MIB also has the power to pursue uninsured drivers for repayment of their outlay, and regularly use it.

Uninsured drivers

The procedural rules are strict and claimants must comply with all reasonable requests for information. Experienced solicitors will advise on whether a request is reasonable and deal with the procedural requirements. Often before the lawyer’s involvement, however, the claimant must make all reasonable efforts to obtain the insurance details of the other driver even if this involves expense. This, it has been suggested, means at least sending a recorded delivery letter to the other driver and if no satisfactory response is received, reporting the matter to the police and obtaining a crime number. The crime is failure to disclose insurance details s154 Road Traffic Act 1988. However, the police will often be involved at the scene and will obtain insurance details as a matter of course and usually provide them to the other parties involved.

Once it has been established that the other driver is not insured, the matter must be reported to the MIB without delay. As technically the Bureau has no liability to pay the claim until judgement has been obtained against the uninsured driver, court proceedings are therefore often required. The MIB must be notified within 14 days of proceedings being issued and within seven days of proceedings being served on the driver. These provisions are very important as failure to notify the Bureau of these steps in time, will excuse the MIB from having to pay the judgement when it is finally obtained.

The claimant must keep the MIB informed at each stage of proceedings. The Bureau should be informed of all steps taken and copied-in on all documents filed at court within seven days. If judgement is to be requested the bureau must be given 35 days notice before making the application. Often, however the MIB will add itself to the proceedings as a party in order to protect its position, which also saves the claimant much work in updating the Bureau as to the state of the proceedings (the Bureau will be informed by the court as a party).

Untraced drivers:

If the driver is unknown, he cannot be sued. Without court proceedings, there can be no judgement for the MIB to pay. In these cases, therefore, the MIB will consider an application by the victim and if satisfied with the claim will make an award of damages. The award is usually in line with what a court might award for similar losses or injuries. The award can be appealed against but under the ‘accelerated procedure’ the claimant must accept or reject the offer within six weeks. Again, the claimant must cooperate with the Bureau and comply with all reasonable requests for information. In untraced driver cases, the Bureau will often wish to interview the victim (as the Bureau will not have the opportunity to hear the victim’s evidence in court).

The requirements mentioned here are far from an exhaustive list – more like the tip of the iceberg. Apart from the procedural problems, however, there are also outright exclusions. The most important and far reaching of which (clause6) excludes claims from passengers who know, or ought to have known, that the vehicle was not insured (or stolen or used for a crime). Difficult to prove, you may think, but the Bureau can assume in certain circumstances that the claimant knew the driver was not insured, ie. where the claimant himself owned the vehicle (and others listed in clause 6(3)). Cases where knowledge is alleged by the Bureau are often difficult and result in litigation.

Essentially, however, despite the substantial increase in procedural requirements, the fundamentals of the scheme haven’t altered since 1946 in that the MIB is a ‘last resort’ for innocent victims. Everyone who drives a car, rides a bicycle or crosses a road could potentially call upon the MIB for essential compensation. The MIB is an institutional safety net which we hope we won’t need, but are glad is there. It may not be the defender of the universe (sorry – had to get a Men In Black reference in somewhere) but its importance to modern society is difficult to overstate.