Interview: Tim Wallis: Man in the middle

Tim Wallis had a busy 2013. As chairman of the Claims Portal, a big chunk of his year was spent overseeing the expansion of the portal to include employers’ liability and public liability claims, a change that was finally implemented at the end of July.

But the portal is just one of many strings to Wallis’ bow. He holds a number of other positions that make him a prominent member of the legal and insurance communities, such as chairman of the Association of British Insurers General Terms of Agreement Technical Committee and a member of the Civil
Justice Council.

Wallis’ appetite for insurance law goes back many years. He studied civil litigation during his law degree, which made him aware that insurers were the main users of the civil justice system. This prepared him to work with the insurance industry, in a career kicked off by his first role at Crutes Law.

The position involved personal injury work on behalf of the two big trade unions Crutes Law represented. “The first part of my career was very much against insurers,” Wallis confesses. “My firm, however, experienced two things. First, the two trade unions merged. Second, my firm fell out with the remaining trade union client, so we moved in a very short period from being 50-50 claimant/defendant to 100% defendant.”

But this was not all bad news for Crutes, says Wallis: “Insurers saw that my firm was no longer involved in bringing claims again the industry. They recognised the firm had expertise, and so what could have been a devastating blow economically wasn’t a problem – as the trade union left, more insurance work arrived and the firm continued to grow.”

Following this turnaround at Crutes, Wallis moved towards legal policy work, getting involved with what was then the Law Society’s civil litigation committee. “This move got me closer to insurance, because it was where I got into mediation,” Wallis recalls. It would become a skill that would serve him well throughout his career.

Other doors opened for Wallis as a result of his involvement with the respected committee – he then joined the Civil Justice Council, before being named president of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers, with both roles providing him with a unique insight into
insurance legislation.

In his capacity as independent chairman of the ABI’s GTA Technical Committee, Wallis has recently been looking into the potential benefits of launching a credit
hire portal.

However, this is not imminent at present. “We’ll soon be seeing an industry cost-benefit assessment of the work we have done in respect of the prospective credit hire portal,” Wallis explains. “At the moment we are carrying out a feasibility study, but when this cost-benefit is completed it would be [time] to build the portal, so I must not jump the gun on that, because the stakeholders have not decided [on the direction of travel].”

Still on the subject of portals, Wallis’ recent efforts have been focused on implementing the EL/PL portal extension. Building on previous experience with the road traffic accident side, the Claims Portal rolled out a series of workshops ahead of the extension so the market could hit the ground running once the portal went live.

Although the extension was timetabled to go live on April 2013, the Ministry of Justice agreed to grant an extension, which meant the portal was finally launched at the end of July.

While Wallis is largely pleased with how the extension went, he admits it would have been useful to know from the start that his team would be granted the extra
three months.

“It would have been lovely to start off knowing we had that much time to deal with it, rather than getting the extension. But we understand the civil servants and the politicians who drive these changes have their agenda, and we have to fit in with that,” he diplomatically states.

Not long after the implementation of the EL/PL extension, figures from the portal indicated users needed further education on using the portal– after 40% of just over 700 claims submitted to the portal dropped out of the system because they were wrongly inputted.

Now the portal is live, all the information generated from the education workshops held by the Claims Portal ahead of the extension is available online, and Wallis says it is now down to firms to deal with user errors. 

“[Training] is now primarily down to the organisations,” he explains. “The website that has been developed had a lot of resources put in. Web designers made it so you don’t have to go and look at a mass of information – it is picked out for users, with walkthroughs and training aids.”

In addition, the portal has a helpdesk for users experiencing difficulties – but Wallis says this hotline often receives complaints about the protocol rather than the portal itself.

“Our helpdesk, which is primarily for technical problems, does receive enquiries about interpreting the protocol, and we are working with the helpdesk to direct these enquiries,” he says. “We help where we can, and where there are overlaps – for example, if there is a complaint about a behaviour that might overlap with both us and the protocols – we don’t dismiss it and say ‘go to the court’. If we think there’s bad behaviour, our behaviour committee will take a look.”

While Wallis’ job is simply to ensure the portal functions according to these protocols, he believes these parameters are likely to change as the portal  beds down.

“Logic tells me these protocols are going to need to be developed as people get used to different ways of working. If I had to bet whether or not the protocols are going to be exactly the same in three or five years’ time, I would put my money on them changing,” he says. 

“The likelihood is we will see stakeholders going back to the rules committee and suggesting improvements, [but] that depends on what else is happening in civil justice,” Wallis explains, adding that the potential changes to the small claims court could have a big impact on the portal.

Industry issues

While legislators and stakeholders decide on the portal’s future, Wallis says the insurance industry’s biggest challenge at present is how it adapts to recent legal changes.

“Dealing with claims comes with some pressure. If you have to introduce change after change then it is going to become an even more difficult job,” he says. “The challenge is how to make use of all these changes to benefit policyholders in the long term.”

Wallis regards the need for a collaboration as another issue the industry must tackle. “We might be about to see ‘Costs Wars II’, and that can lead to the deterioration of relationships, because costs wars will get people fighting,” he explains.

He cites the recent ‘Plebgate’ affair – in which costs were not recoverable due to a missed deadline for budget submission – as a good example of the impact a lack of costs transparency can have. “Those things hurt and have an impact on careers,” he says. “So to still be talking and working collaboratively across the industry could be a big challenge.”

But Wallis does not shy away from challenges. In fact, he says his proudest achievement is orchestrating the publication of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Mediation Handbook – a task with which he was entrusted without being given any budget.

“The Jackson costs report recommended there should be an ADR handbook, as mediation is not enough in personal injury and clinical negligence claims,” he explains. “It is not often you are given a job and you get something you can hold, something tangible. There’s even been a recent case in the Court of Appeal that has actually endorsed the book.”

The book, which is also endorsed by the Judicial College, the Civil Justice Council and the Civil Mediation Council, has been issued free to all judges.

Mediation master

Wallis is also proud of his mediation work overall, which has resulted in real change for the industry. He explains: “[These deals] started around 10 years ago, with predictable costs for road traffic accidents. After that, there were a number of industry agreements where we had litigation lawyers on one side and UK claims managers on the other. These meetings were convened by the Civil Justice Council and the MoJ, so as a result those deals involved actually seeing the law going forward.”

Wallis says win-win situations do not usually occur in the mediation business: “The only way to get a business deal is if people are able to compromise. Sometimes people get upset because, in order to get a deal, they have to compromise a little more than they had anticipated.”

The most remarkable mediation experiences have involved situations where the parties concerned at first seemed irreconcilable, he explains: “I remember occasions when people met with me ahead of a negotiation and told me, in their own way, that there was no way a deal could happen – then there is genuine surprise later in the day when it does.

“But to get the best result you need to move away from the heat, ask what the matter is really about and find out how the parties are going to be better served, hypothetically. If you can give them that, people start to listen and to work together.”

Wallis says that while the insurance industry is generally good at compromising, emotions do run high: “Whenever there is an industry situation where there has been a falling‑out or litigation interaction, the people get
emotional – in a business sense.

“People care about their business and are passionate about them. They think they’re right and the other party is wrong, and that’s a very difficult environment in which to get an agreement. But what I never forget is that the vast majority of disputes are settled by good, straightforward negotiation skills.”

Wallis confesses he is still disappointed when negotiations end unsuccessfully: “Sometimes the best I can hope to do is make a difference in nine out of 10 cases. [As a mediator] you spend a lot of time [thinking introspectively], considering what could have been done differently.

“It happens sometimes that you hear the rest of the story afterwards, and that parties that didn’t do business end up coming out quite a lot worse. You bounce back by having a private smile. I couldn’t possibly say ‘I told you so’, but I can allow myself a private smile.”

Preparation is the most important business value for Wallis. He says: “The most valuable lesson I’ve learnt is the importance of being prepared for what you do. Only if you are passionate and go over the top with your preparation can you really do well on a consistent basis.”

And doing well is something Wallis plans to carry into this year. Looking ahead at 2014, all he wants is “to find new ways of keeping all of the people happy, all of the time”. As the industry continues to evolve, we can only hope Wallis gets his wish.

This article was published in the 9 January issue of Post magazine