Whiplash claim

mackem86

Hi All,

Just want to say, thanks in advance!

I was in a car crash, well; 'crash' is a little to hard of a word, lets say we swapped paint.

Basically, my car and his car went to close my front passenger side connected with his driver side. ( A little like :beer: this. the two cars went into the side of each other).

I've only just found out that he's claiming for whiplash, which i find funny and annoying!

I'm so keen to take this to court, but i'm not sure of a couple of things:

1. Can i request or demand that my insurance company challenges his claim?
2. What court will it go to?
3. Can i represent myself?

That's it for now, thank you!

lisyloo

Can i request or demand that my insurance company challenges his claim?

You can certainly point things out to your insurer.
and if you think it's a fradulent claim then you should do so.
However, basically you are not in a posistion to make demands.
They will deal with it in the way that is best for them, which may not be the best for you.
You also do not know if the person involved had any pre-existing condition that made them suspectible and you are probably not a medical expert (I agree it sounds highly fishy but just pointing out that you don't know for sure).
In your posistion I would certainly notify the insurer of my suspicions.

Can i represent myself?

Unless you are both a legal and medical expert then I would have thought this was highly inadvisable.
Let your insurers deal with it, but notify them of your suspicions.

Quentin

To help out on your unanswered questions:

2) County court (regarding the claim for damages). Magistrates court if there are any dangerous driving type charges brought against you.

3) You can, but your insurer will normally provide legal representation if you end up in court.

Twinblade

I work in Personal Injury Claims on a defence basis for an Insurance company so can certainly assist you on this one, will probably be easier if you need advice though to PM Me.

Basically, without knowing alot more detail on the incident circumstances and the damage caused I can only give basic advice here, but here goes:

When you report it to your Insurance Company make them aware of minimal damage to your vehicle and when ensure that they challenge the PI Claim. Now, in today's economic times more and more people are making PI Claims as a way to earn some easy money, so a decent claims handler should be able to spot the potential "inflated/fraudulent" claim being made.

The basis for his claim would be that he will pursue a medical report to prove his injuries, although a whiplash injury is hard to disprove and any fraudulent claimant will simply say they have recovered prior to the examination and then get a pay out based on a prognosis given between the accident date and the examination (usually 1-2 months).

However, if your Insurer is interested in combatting fraud they will dispute causation and arrange inspections of both vehicles. They should hint to the claimants solicitors that this is a Low Speed Impact and if the damage is very minimal then there is plenty of case law that states injuries cannot occur through claims without physical damage and the claimant solicitor will at this point know where the claim is likely heading.

They will either agree and drop it, or agree but ask for a nominal settlement figure to make their client go away (say £500). However, if you can prove fraud, which given an incident occurred is unlikely unless your Insurer can prove that the claimant is a serial offender. However, there are some Insurers who dont dispute LSI Claims purely because they are not cost effective to argue.

In answer to your questions, directly:

You can request that your Insurer looks into the claim in more detail (see above).
As pointed out it will go the a County Court
You can represent yourself, although your Insurers will be brought in a second defendant if they are involved (and if this goes to court you will want them to indemnify you) so they will take legal representation.

dacouch

The above are all very good advice.

I would recommend that if you are ever unfortunate enough to have another accident take photographs of the damage to both cars, the road markings, cany skid marks, signs where the cars have ended up etc (It is also worth taking photos of the drivers and any passengers.

This will help your Insurance company deal with you either your claim against someone else or assist them defending a claim as it serves as good evidence and helps the claims handler understand what happened in the accident

rabster74

As a liability claims handler who see's these types of claims on a daily basis, my advice is to contact your insuers asap. Tell them your suspicions and ask them to inspect your vehicle as soon as possible.

For an insurance company to run these claims requires evidence.

AndrewSmith

3 words,

Evidence - Evidence - Evidence.

Agreed with all the above. Your insurer is no keener to pay out on any PI claim than you are to allow them to do so. Make sure when you send in your accident report form that it accurately describes the impact and speed etc. Include images of the damage to your car and, if possible, details of any potential witness'.

If your insurer feels the PI claim is suspect they will investigate fully I assure you.

Excellent point above regarding 'physical evidence'. I had a recent case where one car 'tapped' the rear on a car in front. No damage except nothing more than a mark in the dirt on the bumper. The driver of the car in front was trying to claim for a 14 month whiplash injury saying he had been to A&E and been prescribed painkillers and anti inflammatory medication. Case was thrown out by the driver's own solicitor due to the lack of Physical evidence following inspection of both vehicles. Also the driver could not provide a copy of the prescription he had supposedly been given and was inconsistent when describing his exact symptoms. I think also that the driver decided he was wise not to continue with the claim once the word Perjury was mentioned.

lal1234

In a similar situation (I think!) my partner had very minor bump with another car - partners car's number plate was cracked, no other damage. That was back in August. We're still waiting to hear the outcome from insurance co - last we hear (before Christmas) was that they were "waiting for medical reports".

SolicitorMidlands

To the above poster - they will end up paying up I suspect although I would hope they will not. If the damage is under 500 pounds then it is likely to be classed as a low velocity impact. I had someone trying to tell me she was injured when there was no damage to her car. Ridiculous.