Motorists are being urged to speed up reporting of accidents or risk losing out.The claims process for personal injuries sustained in certain types of road traffic accidents where the injuries are valued between £1,000 and £10,000 will fundamentally change from April 30.

Chris Stanley, personal injury expert and a consultant in the litigation division of Midland law firm MFG Solicitors, said: "The rules remain the same for initiating a claim, ie within three years of the date of an injury, but the insurers for the driver responsible for the accident must now respond in a much tighter timescale.

"If an accident has not been reported to the driver's insurer and the insurers receive a claim form they have difficulty in responding to and if therefore notification by their insured has been delayed or is late they may seek to void the policy rather than be in breach of the new protocol and time for response to any claim, which must now be within 15 days.

"The intention is to make it a much smoother and quicker experience as it will cut out delays on the part of insurers investigating claims. Their response will now have to be within 15 days instead of the current three months."

The new procedures will be based on internet exchange of documentation between solicitors acting for the claimant and the insurance company acting for the driver responsible.

"The system is bound to take some time to bed in but should, if it works as intended, produce much swifter responses and hopefully admissions of liability by insurance companies than is currently the case," said Mr Stanley.

"What is important is that all accidents are reported to insurers as soon as possible after the event so that everyone will be aware of the accident whenever a claim is actually initiated - this will almost certainly be a condition of all road traffic accident policies in any case."