Where are you
in your claim?

The claim notification is a formal document — it starts a legal clock. The moment it is submitted through the OIC portal, the other party's insurer is notified and has 30 working days to make a liability decision. You do not need to prove fault at this stage — you are notifying the system that a claim exists.

• Confirm the accident date — the three-year limitation period runs from here
• Note the other vehicle's registration if you have it
• Be aware that any early approach from an insurer is not the formal process

The 30 working day window exists because liability decisions require investigation — the insurer needs to gather information from their policyholder, check for dashcam footage, review witness accounts and assess the circumstances of the accident. The silence during this period is not negligence or delay on their part; it is the process functioning as designed.

The insurer will admit fault, deny it, or offer a split liability position. If they admit liability, the claim moves to the medical stage. If they deny it, you may respond with evidence through the portal. A denial is a position — not a verdict.

• Note the exact submission date — the 30 working day clock starts here, not from the accident
• Working days exclude weekends and bank holidays — 30 working days is approximately six calendar weeks

The medical examiner is independent — not employed by the insurer, not your GP. The report determines two things: injury type and prognosis period. These feed directly into the government tariff to produce a compensation value. How the report describes your recovery period is how your claim will be valued.

After the appointment, you receive a draft of the report before it is submitted. This review window exists because you are the only person who knows whether the report accurately reflects your experience. The examiner sees you once. You lived the recovery.

• Describe symptoms at their worst — the examination records your condition on the day, not the average
• Mention all ways the injury has affected daily life — sleep, work, driving, exercise, household tasks
• Review the draft report carefully — the prognosis period becomes the basis for your offer, and amendments can only be raised before approval

The settlement offer is calculated mechanically: the insurer applies the government tariff to the injury type and prognosis period recorded in your medical report. A first offer reflects the minimum tariff justifiable under the report as submitted. The portal is designed with a negotiation mechanism precisely because a counter-offer is an expected part of the process, not an unusual one.

A settlement closes the claim permanently. There is no reopening process after acceptance — which is why the question of whether your symptoms have fully resolved matters more than whether the figure feels fair in the moment.

• Understand what the offer is based on — injury type and prognosis period from your medical report
• Check the tariff reference to understand whether the figure is consistent with what was recorded
• The most important question before accepting: are your symptoms fully resolved?

The OIC portal is not designed with transparency in mind. Communications from insurers can be unclear. The most common cause of confusion is being in the liability waiting period — when nothing visible is happening — and not knowing whether that silence is normal. It almost always is. If you’ve received correspondence you don’t understand, the Definitions page exists for exactly this reason.

• Your portal account shows the current formal status of your claim
• 30 working days from submission is when the liability decision should arrive

If the driver who caused your accident was uninsured, or fled the scene, the standard OIC portal process does not apply — but your claim is not over. The Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB) exists specifically to compensate people injured by uninsured and untraced drivers. Most people don’t know it exists until they need it.

• Uninsured driver claims are handled through the MIB, not the OIC portal
• Untraced driver claims require a police report — report the accident if you have not already done so
• The three-year limitation period applies — but MIB procedures differ from standard claims
• Regulated legal advice is strongly recommended for most MIB claims