Personal injury claims - what a scam!

BertTheRaccoon

Nice post Jamie, sums it up pretty well and mirrors my day to day experience when dealing with insurers and their panel of Defendant firms.

Sweatsock

I made a PI claim once after being rear ended at 30mph. I was off work for 2 weeks and the muscles and the top of my back had spasmed on impact and remained that way for about 10 days or so. I also had very minor whiplash. I only claimed after the third party insurer contacted me and advised me of my rights etc, tbh I wasn't even aware of how PI legislation worked at the time. I recieved a sum that was purely for injury as I was on a good contract with no loss of eanrign for my two weeks off. Throughout the whole process I tol the truth to the third party insurer, and the doctor whom they referred me too. I'm sure if I wanted to I could have invenetd a lot of extra injuries and suffering as well as taken longer off work as I could have been off 6 months and still been on full pay. For me though that is morally wrong and not something I would ever do.

Fast forward 18 months and I was in a bump where I was at fault. The impact was at 20mph and was more of a glance than a full on hit. The third party in this case was in a company car and worked as a sales person. She was out of the car immediately and ran over towards me, no sign of injuries. We exchanged details and both contacted our insurers the same day. A week later I get the letter saying I was at fault and she was injured etc from a claim handling firm. Fair enough I thought, injuries do often present later after the accident. However, here's the kicker; as she lived quite close to me a friend of mine knew her from drinking in the same pub. Two weeks after the accident she attended a music festival and there was photos of her on Facebook on people's shoulders during cocnerts and there was a photo of her carrying her friend on her shoulders also. I didn't find this out until 10 months after the accident by which point she had been awarded £4k and had taken around 8 weeks off work with 'whiplash injuries'.

Crazy_Jamie

TSx wrote: »

Out of interest Jamie, do you find this is across all insurers or just some particularly bad ones? I know when we negotiate, the first offer we now make is at the 'higher figure' from the calculated range for that injury and then negotiate upwards if neccesary.

We're constantly being told to avoid litigation and costs to prevent exactly the scenario you describe above.

In my experience it is more common to see patterns in terms of approach and attitude with solicitors firms than it is with the insurers themselves (which applies on both the Claimant and Defendant side of things). The reason for that is probably that any given insurer will have a huge number of individual file handlers in numerous different areas, and with that many individuals there will be always be variation in how cases are approached. So I guess the answer to the question is that to one degree or another it happens across most insurers, though others may have more specific experience of individual insurers.

Though it is worth noting that whilst my example was in the simple area of settling basic claims, the general attitude applies in a number of different areas. LVI (Low Velocity Impact) claims are a prime example. Many insurers are very keen to take the view of their insured on LVI claims and just run the case to its conclusion. It is very common in my experience to come across statements from Defendant drivers in LVI claims who are clearly not accurately estimating the speed of their vehicle at the time of the collision. Yet so many of these cases are run to trial, with the Claimant winning the vast majority of the time. Notwithstanding the minor injuries that normally accompany LVI claims, it is technically a fraud allegation, and therefore costs in LVI claims can easily to run tens of thousands of pounds for the Claimant's costs alone.

As with my basic example above, LVI claims are another area where insurers just don't do a good enough job of assessing claims in a practical and objective manner. The upshot is that litigation costs far more than it should do.

Finefoot wrote:

Please can you expand on the Jackson ruling? I know someone who has been going the motions for 6 years now, for their PI claim.

I am happy to expand on the Jackson reforms, but it has been confirmed that they will not have a retrospective effect. As such they should have no practical impact on your friend's claim.

vet8

BertTheRaccoon wrote: »

The conversation you have had sounds very much like one I have heard a law firm operating (who take claims notification calls on behalf of insurers and brokers)

Were their initials M L by any chance?

Yes their initials were ML and they have now phoned a further 4 times. And I have still heard nothing about the car repair etc.

BertTheRaccoon

I suspected as much, as soon as you mentioned the exercises I recognised their MO.

Phone your actual provider ( I think you said it was Lloyds TSB) and speak with customer services and complain that the racket who took notification of your claim on their behalf have done nothing to facilitate getting your car sorted and are merely pestering you repeatedly about an injury claim.

A friend of my wife works for the Legal Ombudsman and they have actual dedicated set people to deal exclusively with complaints from them as there are that many.

dacouch

Solicitors proving the long held legal precedence of quisquis redoluit eam egit eam (Forgive my google latin)...

http://www.thisisgrimsby.co.uk/Noisy-flatulence-interrupts-court-session-Grimsby/story-18013672-detail/story.html


Typical solicitors arguing over who is to blame!

Honest_Driving_Dinosaur

I'M WITH YOU ON THIS VET8. I've driven for 35 years and had 3 or 4 minor bumps. All settled legally within traditional insurance practice.
Never until January this year (6 months after a small bump) had I heard of this pro-active harassment to claim monies set aside by the other insurer.
I've been called 5 times now, 3 times the same mob and twice from another lot of parasites.
It started with £1500 I could claim, then rose to £2900.
It must be illegal encouraging people to make fraudulent claims and I wonder what would happen if I made a complaint about harassment.
I'd love nearly £3 grand but I'm not going to lie and in up in serious trouble.
I wasn't even driving! Echoes of a Mr Huhne.