The lawyers are at it again, trying to nibble around the edges of tort reform by claiming the reforms have gone too far. It’s a persuasive mantra if it’s repeated often enough, and the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) is countering with evidence that the reforms have been successful in making public liability insurance affordable.

The Law Institute of Victoria is the latest to claims insurers are “profiteering” from tort reform. One of the motivations behind that line of argument is litigation lawyers’ loss of business since the legislation came in.

ICA says the statistics backing the institute’s campaign are negligible and account for only a small percentage of liability claims made against insurers.

The institute says there has been a 95% drop in the number of public liability claims before the Victorian County Court.

“Whether intended or unintended, these reforms have simply gone too far, and injured Victorians with genuine injuries – particularly children and the elderly – are being denied access to fair compensation,” Vice President Geoff Provis said.

But ICA CEO Kerrie Kelly says regular monitoring by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) shows the reforms are working and law groups should stop making mischief.

“Lawyers should do better than to mislead the public by quoting the court statistics of public liability cases as the complete picture of the number of claims being handled and settled by insurers,” she said.

“The reality is that the vast majority of claims for personal injury compensation are dealt with outside the court process.”

The ACCC has conducted five price-monitoring reports – the last one finding that the average liability premium declined 4% in 2004, and further reductions were expected for 2005. The way the market is softening, that is likely to have been easily achieved.

“Winding back the reforms can only operate to the detriment of ordinary Australians, community groups, small businesses and the major corporates, who all depend on a stable insurance market for the public liability insurance protection they need,” Ms Kelly said.