Government figures show that personal injury (PI) claim volumes have continued to fall across England and Wales, extending a multi-year downward trend that is reshaping the PI landscape. Recent data, drawn from the Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU) and released following a Freedom of Information request, indicates that fewer claims are entering the system than at any point in the last decade.

The latest CRU data highlights significant reductions across several major categories:

• Motor injury claims fell to a record low in Q3 2025, with around 72,000 applications registered in the quarter.

• Clinical negligence claims have reduced from 17,400 in 2018 to 14,900 in 2023.

• Employer-related injury claims halved between 2018 and 2023, falling from 88,000 to 44,000.
• Across all PI categories combined, CRU records show a drop from 876,000 claims in 2018 to 476,000 in 2023.

Causes are varied with a combination of factors being:

• the impact of reforms to low-value claims

•  a tighter small-claims regime

•  stronger fraud detection measures

• shifting public expectations around the viability of certain types of injury claims

What This Means for Solicitors

For claimant firms, falling volumes mean fewer low-complexity cases to balance caseloads.

The cases that do progress often involve more substantial injuries or more complex liability issues, requiring closer investigation from the outset. This can increase the time spent on initial assessment and case planning.

For defendant teams, a lower volume of claims does not necessarily translate into lower exposure. With a greater proportion of cases involving serious injury or contested liability, the financial stakes in each matter may be higher, and early evidential clarity becomes increasingly important.

UKExpertMedical Comment

Daniel Mallard, Team Manager, Personal Injury at UKExpertMedical says, “The drop in overall PI volumes doesn’t reduce the need for clarity — it increases it. We’re seeing more cases where early evidence makes the difference between progressing a claim and advising that it shouldn’t proceed. With fewer straightforward matters coming through the system, the cases we see now often involve more nuanced injury patterns or disputed liability. That puts pressure on solicitors at the front end of a case.

Our role is to strip away uncertainty by delivering evidence that’s well-reasoned, clear and ready to use, so firms can move quickly and confidently in whichever direction the case needs to go.”

Implications for Medico-Legal Evidence

As lower-value, straightforward claims fall away, firms continue to need clear timelines, comprehensive clinical histories and expert analysis that addresses causation, prognosis and functional impact with precision.

Where liability is disputed, courts are showing less tolerance for speculative arguments or incomplete documentation — a trend reflected in several recent costs decisions involving PI firms.

High-quality medical evidence is therefore playing a greater role in how cases are assessed, valued and resolved.

UKExpertMedical

At UKExpertMedical, providing high-quality medical evidence plays an even more central role in resolving claims efficiently and credibly- contact us here to talk to our team.