The Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA) has introduced the International Bodily Injury Index, a tool designed to provide insight into personal injury compensation awards across more than 80 jurisdictions globally, excluding the United States.
Developed over three years by the LMA’s International Liability business panel, the index aims to analyse compensation trends and track the impact of social inflation. A news release highlighted that the index examines compensation for personal injury claims in various regions, including Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. It also provides state-level data in Australia and provincial figures in Canada.
The index found variations in compensation practices. Within the UK, Northern Ireland shows the highest awards for several types of injuries, including broken limbs and amputations. Scotland recorded the largest claims for paralysis and death, reflecting the region’s personal injury discount rate (PIDR) of +0.5%, which influences lump sum payouts.
Elsewhere in Europe, Italy consistently ranks among the highest for several injury types, while Ireland leads in head injury and paralysis compensation. Conversely, Serbia and Slovakia reported some of the lowest awards in the region. Outside Europe, Australia stands out with some of the highest payouts globally, significantly exceeding those in Canada.
Chris Mather, senior executive for technical underwriting at the LMA, noted the importance of the data in understanding compensation trends. “We believe this index will be a valuable resource for our members to track severities, compensation claims and jurisdictional variances, international comparisons and benchmarking, and as the index develops over the years, it will provide insight into the extent to which the level of awards is increasing at or above inflation rates,” he said.
Alastair Herbert, head of international liability at Probitas 1492 and leader of the working group behind the index, emphasised its role in enhancing underwriting practices.
“Underwriting is the blend of art and science, and this index will provide a greater degree of certainty to greatly assist our day-to-day decision making. It demonstrates the enormous differences between the jurisdictions which allows us to underwrite the most volatile perils we insure more accurately; as a result, our pricing becomes more aligned with the exposure in that country making us more competitive,” said Herbert. “By making this a multi-year project, it also talks to our exposure to social inflation which, quite rightly, is one of the key hot topics in the liability world.”
The index was created in partnership with the law firm DAC Beachcroft and its network of local legal experts to ensure jurisdiction-specific accuracy.
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