Businesses will be consulted before any claims for personal injury are settled by their insurance company, the insurance industry guaranteed yesterday.

Insurers also promised to give businesses at least 15 days' notice of policy renewals and fight suspicious or exaggerated claims under a new code for improving communications between business policyholders and their insurance companies.

The publication of the guidelines by the Irish Insurance Federation (IIF) and the employers' group IBEC fulfils one of the recommendations made by the Motor Insurance Advisory Board (MIAB) in April 2002.

The guidelines set out the action to be taken by an insurer and its business policyholder in the event of an accident, as well as in the claims handling, litigation and settlement processes.

Mr Paul Donaldson, vice-president of the IIF, said the publication would bring confidence back to the relationship between insurers and businesses. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr McDowell, said businesses had long felt that their perspective was not taken sufficiently into account by insurers when dealing with claims.

He said failure to consult with businesses in the past had led to "a complete sense of isolation and mystification" on their part.

Mr McDowell said he fully supported the principle that only earnings losses supported by proof of declared earnings history from the Revenue would be payable in the event of a claim for personal injury. Measures to provide for this will be included in the reform proposals that he will submit to Government in the next 28 days.