For those who think we're "Claim City" .....

declanmcc

Some interesting stats.

From BBC Bad News Norn Iron:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4429984.stm

chunter

Cheers Declan, something we all suspected but couldn't prove.

wotnoshoeseh

The problem still lies with the insurance companies' :mad: willingness to settle out of court and our legal system awarding much higher personal injury awards than in England, Scotland and Wales. Because of our courts' history of making large personal injury awards :mad: people are more liable to make a claim should we have an accident.
Let me give you an example.
About 7 or 8 years ago I had an accident whereby I didn't see the other cars indicator until the last minute due to the strong sunlight on the day. When I did realise (too late) what the other car was doing I braked. I slid into the rear of the other car at, I would guess, a maximum speed of approx. 5 - 10 mph.
I drove my car to work for the next two weeks and nobody noticed the damage.
When I got my insurance renewal my present company had refused to insure me. There was a personal injury claim in against me for £11K. There were two people in the other car.
After the accident the driver of the other car was able to inspect my car and crawl under it to check that the radiator wasn't leaking. I'm not sure whether he sustained his injuries in this manoeuvre or in the accident :mad: .
There was no investigation and no further contact from my insurance company after I had submitted my statement. They ended up settling out of court (almost three years later) for £6000.
In the intervening three years I had had the initial £11K claim factored in on all of my policies. :eek:

In summary I can understand the insurance companies willingness to settle out of court as it is substantially more economical for them to do so, but had they contacted me I would have been able to assist them with the above information so that they could have used this as a bargaining point against the claimant.


If you're hurt then fair enough you are entitled to something but it would appear that integrity has fallen by the wayside in the light of greed

wotnoshoeseh.