Privy Council to decide on legality of levy for local Motor Insurance Bureau
The Court of Appeal’s order of 25 April 2025 granting conditional leave for the Motor Insurance Bureau Association (MIBA) to take its ongoing dispute with the State to the Privy Council has thrown a long-simmering issue back into the national spotlight. At the heart of the case lies more than TT $1 billion in levies collected from motorists since 2008—money explicitly earmarked to fund a Motor Insurance Bureau (MIB) that has never been created.
The MIB model is anything but novel. In 1946, the United Kingdom’s insurers entered into an agreement with the government that established the Motor Insurers’ Bureau to compensate people injured by drivers who carried no insurance or fled the scene.
Trinidad & Tobago formally embraced the same idea in the 2008 Budget, introducing a levy on motor-insurance premiums to capitalize a local MIB. The levy was duly collected— and according to the pleadings in the aforementioned case, has amassed over a billion dollars by 2017—but the institutional machinery to pay claims was never enacted. In 2017 the MIBA and a private citizen sought judicial review, arguing that the continued collection and retention of the levy without establishing the Bureau was unlawful. Both the High Court and, in 2024, the Court of Appeal held that policy statements alone cannot create a legal duty; only Parliament can establish the MIB and authorize payouts. The leave now granted to appeal to the Privy Council offers one last judicial avenue to compel action—or at least provide clarity—on the status of the fund.
If the Privy Council rules in favor of the Motor Insurance Bureau Association, the government may be compelled to take swift action, either by enacting the legislation to begin disbursing the funds to claimants, or by halting the collection of the levy (which has largely already stopped). On the other hand, if the Privy Council upholds the lower courts’ decisions, the issue will squarely return to the realm of policy.
Regardless of the judicial outcome, the need for a functioning Motor Insurance Bureau in Trinidad & Tobago remains evident. The status quo leaves too many road users vulnerable and undermines the mischief that statutorily-required motor insurance represents. Victims of uninsured motorists remain in a precarious position: they could sue the driver, but any judgment is worth little against an impecunious defendant, and hit-and-run victims have no practical remedy at all. Bringing Trinidad & Tobago’s MIB to life would align our country with well-established international practices that safeguard road victims.
At Pollonais, Blanc, de la Bastide & Jacelon, we will be closely following the developments of this case and any legislative changes that might ensue. Follow our page for updates when the Privy Council lists the hearing and hands down judgment.
