Expanding the use of telematics into the OIC

DWF has over a decade of experience using data from telematics devices to help insurers fight fraud, achieve better liability outcomes and reduce indemnity spend.

That experience shines through when it comes to adducing that evidence in claims. DWF is able to reliably adduce telematics data in a way that is easy to understand, enabling judges to make sound findings of fact.

Proportionality is often the challenge for insurers, making sure that the cost of interpreting and adducing the evidence does not outweigh the benefits.

The introduction of the OIC Portal is a further challenge to using telematics data to obtain better liability outcomes, as the overall costs of claims in the portal is much lower. However, DWF has experience introducing telematics data into liability disputes in the small claims track and has developed strategies to ensure that data can be used in OIC Portal liability disputes.

The case has already been made for adducing telematics data as lay witness evidence of fact. In the DWF case of Mitrasinovic v Stroud [2020] the High Court ruled that certain interpretations of telematics data is a mere distillation of GPS and accelerometer data and is evidence of fact, not opinion, even if on the face of it, appears to be complex. This case has given litigants and the courts certainty when it comes to how telematics data can be adduced in disputes.

Further, the case of of Amol v Haig highlights our strategies in action. The case involved a dispute between two drivers who were proceeding on a roundabout when each driver alleges the other changed lanes, causing a collision resulting in personal injury and vehicle damage. This is a common dispute and the most troublesome for insurers as it can often result in involving their policyholder deep into litigation with little certainty as to the outcome.

In Amol however, the Defendant's vehicle had a telematics device. DWF's analysis of the data showed that (a) the incident took place on the roundabout where the Defendant alleged, far from where the Claimant alleged and (b) the evidence of where the Defendant was driving from and to could be used to show that the Defendant intended to leave the roundabout at the next exit from where the collision took place, demonstrating no reason to change lanes.

This evidence was packaged in an easy to understand witness statement along with diagrams and filed with the Defendant's other evidence when OIC Portal proceedings were issued for a liability determination. In light of the telematics data, the insurer can proceed with confidence that the claim has good prospects, rather than a shot in the dark attempt to support the policyholder.

On the horizon

DWF will continue to encourage insurers to use telematics data in the OIC Portal and other low value protocols, using their well-established strategies.

Any further case management updates will be shared with the industry to so that the way telematics data is adduced can continue to be fine-tuned.

DWF is developing various tools to automate the interpretation of data, both in crash analysis and where there are concerns of fraudulent activity.