Mr. Gerry Hassett:

My understanding is that prices have been coming down since the middle of 2016. I believe that when the chief executive officers of some of our members were before the committee over the summer they quoted price reductions in the market of approximately 15% over recent years. Frankly, that was news to me because I am not allowed to even talk to them about those data given the competition constraints, which the committee will understand. Clearly, we have access to the claims data.

I believe the average size of awards is a critical number because that is what dictates claimant behaviour. It also dictates insurer behaviour in settling claims. Why would an insurer add additional cost to go all the way down to the end of the line in a court process when the outcome is predictable?