E-scooters: Pavement Nuisance or Transport Innovation?

Overview

• Electric scooters are legally classified as motor vehicles. Since they have neither type-approval, nor conform to construction and use regulations, and are not taxed, registered or insured, it remains illegal to ride privately owned e-scooters in public places.
• Despite this, they are all too commonly seen on roads and pavements in towns and cities across the UK. The law has not kept up with this practical reality. Government plans for a new Act of Parliament to legalise and regulate scooter use have yet to emerge.
• With no formal legal framework in place to date, claimants and claims handlers are having to consider issues such as duties of care, breach, causation and contributory negligence largely from first principles in current cases. This an uncertain and unsatisfactory position.

Learning objectives

• To outline how current road traffic law applies to e-scooter use.
• To provide a summary of the key legal and evidential issues to consider when handling e-scooter claims.
• To examine what sort of legal regime the government might introduce and the possible effects on insurance and claims issues.