Stop the Ambulance Chasers

arcon5

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

When I was 17 (a long time ago) a car knocked me off my motorbike and wrote it off. I got royally stuffed by the insurance company and ended up paying the finance company a couple of hundred quid more than I got paid out. In 1977 £200 was a LOT of money. That taught me a big lesson.

Do unto others as they would do to you. (but do it first)

If you get clouted by another driver claim everything you are legally allowed.

Insurers are all shysters and deserve everything they get (legally).

That's what gap insurance is for.

Nodding_Donkey

arcon5 wrote: »

That's what gap insurance is for.

I don't think it was heard of then

Had I been driving a three month old car as opposed to a three month old motorbike I would have been ok, they would have replaced it with another brand new one.

BethanyD

Couldn't agree more

Apparently half of whiplash claims here are settled without a medical report so it's easy to make up your symptoms

This is changing soon I think so claims should reduce - anyone know of any websites that help people who have got claims against them reduce or stop the claim?

arcon5 wrote: »

There are a million ways an accident can happen, and tailgating isn't all of them

Stoke

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

Yes, if for instance you're self employed, and are unable to earn an income due to injury caused by someone else's stupidity, then it's fair to be compensated. If you're seriously injured and need to pay for ongoing private nursing care, again fair enough. But claiming for "whiplash" after a 5mph shunt is ridiculous.

A quick story. Last January (as in 13 months ago), I set off for work on a very cold frosty morning. Just a day or two before, my ABS warning light had come on to tell me that one of the sensors had failed, which meant my entire ABS system was disabled (might have made a difference, who knows?).

I hit a roundabout just a little bit too nippy and skidded at roughly 5mph in the back of a Renault Scenic. Two fairly big guys got out and we exchanged details, no big issue. I phoned the fella up later and asked if he would consider going private. He refused, which I was fine with. It's not for everyone. I admitted fault and his vehicle was repaired within the week, all seemed fine.

Two weeks later, I got a phone call from a lawyer (by definition) I'd been 'allocated' by my insurance. They were making an injury claim. I told the lawyer I thought it was a bit bizarre considering how slow the accident was and how little damage occurred. The lawyer explained it was just a formality, so I asked for more details. Both men had put a claim in. One had put a claim for whiplash, the other had put a claim for serious/severe (i forget which word he used) whiplash and a damaged knee. Anyone know the difference between the two forms of whiplash?

Anyway, I pressed the lawyer for further details. The man with the damaged knee had been off work for over a week due the accident at which point I flipped. Both men went to work that day and were in work all week as I failed to make contact with either of them later that week because they were in work. I pressed the lawyer more and he slipped that the driver was the one claiming for the knee injury.
I told my friend who works just minutes away from the drivers house to come home from work via that road. For weeks (while being signed off work), he was routinely outside painting the front of his house, doing the gardening, spannering his car, playing with his kids, yet was unable to work due to a badly damaged knee.

What brassed me off more was the incompetence of my own lawyer, who was so used to it, he didn't even ask for the details. I said "neither of them went to hospital, they both went to work". The lawyer said "oh I didn't ask that". I said "they were both in work all week". I got "oh, I know one of is off work now, but the other isn't". I told the lawyer that these were details he should have asked and said the reason compensation culture is what it is, is because guys like these two jockeys get a £2000 payout for an accident that barely happened and are simply not questioned about it.

Anyway, 13 months on, the claim is still going on as they refused the £2000 they were both offered. Unbelievable.

Moto2

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

When I was 17 (a long time ago) a car knocked me off my motorbike and wrote it off. I got royally stuffed by the insurance company and ended up paying the finance company a couple of hundred quid more than I got paid out. In 1977 £200 was a LOT of money. That taught me a big lesson.

Do unto others as they would do to you. (but do it first)

If you get clouted by another driver claim everything you are legally allowed.

Insurers are all shysters and deserve everything they get (legally).

Fairly similar experience to mine back in 1978 as a 19 yr old
Sat on my newish 750 Honda at a junction and rammed from behind.
Broken ankle, no skin on my back and sore for weeks
Bike wrote off
The payout for the bike and my injuries didn't even get close to buying a new one and my lost wages.

So you can wish to go back to the old way of doing it if you want, I'm happy with how they do it now but I'd like to see the insurance companies stand up and fight a bit more, instead of paying out so easily.

OnanTheBarbarian

BethanyD wrote: »

Couldn't agree more

Apparently half of whiplash claims here are settled without a medical report so it's easy to make up your symptoms

This is changing soon I think so claims should reduce - anyone know of any websites that help people who have got claims against them reduce or stop the claim?

Yes and as long as the insurers keep lobbing out "pre-medical offers" they will continue to help support easy opportunities for people.

There are no websites that help stop or reduce a claim being made against you, that is what your insurer is for.

gilbert_and_sullivan

As this thread shows, the insurance situation reflects the sad money is everything celebrity is all society we have saddled ouselves with, from the very top down (monkey see monkey do), honour and honesty are almost extinct.

We are reaping what was sown.

Lum

Nodding Donkey is on the money here. If your car is written off due to no fault of your own far too often you still end up out of pocket. It's particularly bad for people like me and my partner who choose to drive older cars, look after them and modify them to then have the insurance value the same as a 20 year old rotting shed being punted on autotrader for a few hundred quid with six weeks MOT and no hope of ever passing.

I've put in legit whiplash claims (and when I say legit, I'm still in daily pain 10 years later) and have still failed to break even.

mattyprice4004

spacey2012 wrote: »

The times I look in my rear view mirror and see someone who thinks the safe stopping distance is 5 feet.
I do wonder if they are the same people who grumble about "greedy " whiplash claims.

If you don't drive up the backside of the car in front, you will never have to have one.

Do you have a tally where you count up all the daft and useless 'advice' you give out?

Driving into the back of someone isn't the only way to have an at-fault accident.

OnanTheBarbarian

The thing is, people are quick to denounce whiplash and their insurance going up, but the insurers are all complicit in the state of affairs we have.

When you get smacked in the rear for example and call your insurer to report, the monkey on the other end of the phone is trained and incentivised to ask about injuries in the hope they can refer you onto a law firm.

Insurers are very much in the business of cutting each other's throats i.e happy to encourage an injury claim from their own non-fault policyholder as well as passing the person onto credit hire etc as they receive juicy kickbacks for doing so, knowing full well the insurer of the fault party is going to get hosed down for all such costs.

All insurers are gamekeepers turned poachers. They drive up the costs of insurance by their very own practices. Then go to Downing St for a cup of tea with Dave and bemoan their miserable lot.

if insurers don't like whiplash claims why are so many of them buying law firms to pump all their non-fault injury claims into?