Claiming car insurance myself

geri1965_2

Things changed in the mid 90s when when there were advances in psychiatric medicine and a greater awareness of mental health issues and stress.

For a claim to succeed, the claimant has to be suffering from a recognised psychiatric injury, e.g. post traumatic stress disorder.

There is an article here if you are interested:

http://www.abneys.co.uk/PeterGarsdenArticle(PsychiatricInjury(2006).htm

mattymoo

mog_ktfc wrote: »

If it has changed I stand to be corrected, but insurance law is different to other contract law, like disclosure of material facts and so on.

Certainly when I worked in claims no insurance company countenanced claims for mental suffering without some physical suffering. Even if that has changed I would be very surprised if anyone paid for any kind of professional counselling following a minor accident.

Must be a while ago Mog since such claims have certainly been considered since 1987 when I started in insurance. The person claiming mental suffering does not have to have suffered any injury whatsoever but they do need to have witnessed suffering.

With Emp. Liab. claims we provide counselling services to witnesses of fatal workplace accidents with a view to minimising such claims.

The courts would consider the reaction of "the average person" when deciding whether such an award should be made. For instance, you are unlikely to get anything if you witnessed a simple bone fracture but if you saw something that was quite gory or involved the lengthy extrication from a wrecked vehicle of a close relative, the courts would consider this.

PTSD is also claimable if you are directly involved in the accident.

t8769

Thanks for the info...