Need help to dispute a dodgy "whiplash injury" claim

macriada

Does anyone have a phone number for Acromas legal team? My wife had a small bumpin her car in June and has just received a very snotty letter from Acromas, threatening her personally with action under S158 Road Traffic Act, although she has passed everything on to her insurer. It doesn't help that these guys are registered in Gibraltar. They say that they are "regulated" by the Financial Services Commission in Gibraltar, but if you go on their website you will see that this august body will not take any action whatsoever against the insurance companies that they "regulate". Why are Acromas registered there? Is it a more relaxed regulatory environment or to avoid paying tax? Very dodgy. To be honest, I dislike Saga intensely (they are owned by Acromas), and since turning 50 I have been inundated with offers, all of which seem to be much more expensive than anywhere else! I have a correspondence address for Acromas in Kent, but I like to talk to people, and would like to give them a piece of my mind and tell them where to stick their threatening letter....

C_Mababejive

Are you saying that a third party alleges they were injured as a result of your OH's actions?

If they wish to take action then let them. Until such time,it is just letter writing. I wouldnt respond.

antrobus

macriada wrote: »

Does anyone have a phone number for Acromas legal team? My wife had a small bump in her car in June and has just received a very snotty letter from Acromas, threatening her personally with action under S158 Road Traffic Act, although she has passed everything on to her insurer. ....

That's what you should probably do with the 'very snotty letter from Acromas' as well. As in, pass it on to your insurers, and inform Acromas that is what you have done.

I realise of course, that this will deny you the satisfaction of giving one of their employees a piece of your mind but, whilst I sympathise with the reasons behind it and recognise that it will probably make you feel better, it won't really achieve anything.

macriada

Thanks for calming me down, I'll save up the venom for a later date! However, my blood is boiling over what I perceive to be a fraudulent claim - here are some of the facts:
My wife was driving on a road that was heavily congested at the time due to a local event (this can be proven by police and traffic information such as BBC traffic website) when she hit the back of the (stationary) car in front of her
The impact was minor - she took her foot off the brake and "rolled" into the car in front
There was no acceleration involved
The damage to the third party vehicle was a slight dent to his hatch back door - which still opened and closed properly
There was no damage whatsover to my wife's car, the impact was absorbed by the bumper - not even a scratch!
No complaint was made at the time in relation to injury
No complaint was made during 3 subsequent phone calls from the third party who "wanted to know if we had informed or insurance company yet"
The injury claim is being made by the driver's husband, no claim from the driver
We received an inaccurate and incomplete claim form from a bunch of lawyers in Croydon acting on the claimant's behalf
The claim form intimated that HE was driving
The claim alleged that there was acceleration in moving traffic.
The claim said that he had suffered chest and neck pains for 2 weeks after the accident - YET HE HAD NOT HAD A MEDICAL EXAM OR BEEN TO A DOCTOR at any time after the accident - I wonder why? There has been no medical evidence submitted to date (3 months later).
This is particularly annoying as my wife had an accident earleier in the year in Manchester when a car went into the back of her at some traffic lights. She suffered some pain to her neck, and as she was on her way to a business appointment at a local hospital, she got checked over at their A&E department. They confirmed minor whiplash injuries - all dealt with in a couple of days and cleared up with paracetomol - no time off work. The doctor in A&E even gave her the business card of someone working for a claims company! She was also contacted by two different claims companies, asking her to pursue an injury claim. She refused to do so.
No wonder our car insurance premiums are going through the roof.
Sorry for sounding off, but we are really angry about this.

C_Mababejive

Its just business not personal. Damage was clearly done...a claim is imminent and likely to be justified. Just pass it on to your insurers along with a covering letter telling your OH's version of events.

macriada

We would love to have "our day in court" with this joker, I could tie him up in knots. I just feel that people should take a stand against these fraudsters. Like you say, a claim is imminent, and will probably be paid out. I can't avoid thinking that the insurance companies themselves are exacerbating the situation by not challenging these claims and paying out rather than taking time-consuming and probably expensive legal action against fraudsters. Why should they care - it's our premiums that increase - no skin off their noses.

ILW

Maybe if your wife looked where she was going there would have been no problem. There is no excuse for rear ending another vehicle, short of mechanical failure or possibly a heart attack.

System

ILW wrote: »

Maybe if your wife looked where she was going there would have been no problem. There is no excuse for rear ending another vehicle, short of mechanical failure or possibly a heart attack.

I'm sure you are so perfect that you never make mistakes. This clearly falls into the definition of "An Accident".

The OP should be commended for standing up to this type of spurious whiplash claim which we all have to pay for in higher premiums.

You can tell when a claim is spurious, when no medical report exists because no doctor's appointment was made, this claim seems to have originated from one of the many no win no fee claim companies (The scurge of the planet in my opinion). Legitimate claims are tarnished by all the spurious ones.

System

macriada wrote: »

We would love to have "our day in court" with this joker, I could tie him up in knots. I just feel that people should take a stand against these fraudsters. Like you say, a claim is imminent, and will probably be paid out. I can't avoid thinking that the insurance companies themselves are exacerbating the situation by not challenging these claims and paying out rather than taking time-consuming and probably expensive legal action against fraudsters. Why should they care - it's our premiums that increase - no skin off their noses.

If this type of thing ever happens to me, I would send the spurious claim letter to my insurer with a covering letter which informed my insurer of the facts of the accident and that I consider the whiplash claim to be spurious.

I would also ask my insurer to dispute the claim, not simply pay out.
However, I would also ask that if they did end up not disputing it and paying out for the whiplash claim, then I would want them to itemise the costs and I would want to know what impact this may have on my future premiums.

Since this was a minor fault accident, the accident / claim will need to be declared for the next 3 to 5 years, so future premiums will increase as a result of the accident itself, what you want is an idea of how much additional premium will have to be paid as a result of the whiplash payout.

Then, if the additional premium is a significant amount, I would take the whiplash claimant to the small claims court to argue in front of the court that the claim was spurious and the third party should compensate you for your increased premiums to cover the next 3 to 5 years.
It would be interesting to see if the third party is actually willing to go to court when they have no medical evidence of an injury and when they do not have the backing of a no win no fee company at the small claims court.

If I won the case, I would send a copy of the result to my insurer to shame them for not fighting the claim

InsideInsurance

BAA1 wrote: »

If I won the case, I would send a copy of the result to my insurer to shame them for not fighting the claim

Insurance is a numbers game though. If you say it is small claims court (ie an injury under £1,000) then even if your insurers fight and win they are not entitled to claim back legal costs from the third party as these are prohibited in small track.

Insurer's won't self represent and so have to pay a barrister which is easily going to be £750-£1,500. So why pay out £1,000 to avoid paying a £900 claim?

Most insurers financially are better off making a slightly low Part 36 offer to deter the court case than to actually defend.

Once you get above £1,000 and get into the Fast Track rather than Small Track things change because costs can be recovered but still there is a numbers game in it because of the fee difference of out of court and in court settlements.

geri1965_2

Insurers do defend fraudulent claims as far as they are able to. The problem is that the medical report supplied by the claimant's solicitors is "proof" as far as the courts are concerned and the judge is likely to rule in their favour, leaving insurers to pick up the costs.