Motor insurance

Compliance with EC Motor Insurance Directives

The European Court of Justice, in Evans v Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions , Case C-63/01, 4 December 2003, forthcoming in [2004] Lloyd’s Rep IR, has answered a series of preliminary questions posed by the High Court and the Court of Appeal when the case came before it in 2001 (see [2002] Lloyd’s Rep IR 1 ). The case concerned the Motor Insurers’ Bureau’s Untraced Drivers Agreement 1972, which has subsequently been revised in a number of important respects by the 2003 Agreement. The questions posed went to the very heart of the structure for providing compensation to the victims of untraced drivers. As will be seen, the UK has emerged largely unscathed, albeit as a result of the relatively unusual situation in which the ECJ chose to reject the contrary advice of the Advocate General, given in October 2002.