to be annoyed that all of my in-laws seem to sue for whiplash......

[mum2samandalex]

or for anything else when ever they get the opportunity. I cant stand people like that how can they be so dishonest i hope it comes back on her grrrrrrr

[Octothechildherder]

Everyone in the car can get whiplash - not just the driver.

[catweazle]

Not if they aren't actually in the car! (There was only the driver but both husband and wife claimed )

[aGalChangedHerName]

YANBU

My dad claimed for whiplash and got a fairly hefty payout IIRC. Trouble was there was bugger all wrong with him. Stupid bastard!!

[aGalChangedHerName]

But if someone is actually injured then of course they should put in a claim. Forgot to say that lol

[lizandlulu]

maybe in the older generation, yes i agree, but i thought we was talking about people trying to pull off a claim over a small accident, not major car crash.

young, fit people with no back problems should not get whiplash in a minor car accident.

IMO

[georgimama]

And still you are talking crap

"young, fit people with no back problems should not get whiplash in a minor car accident". FFS.

Unless you are a consultant orthopaedic surgeon? And an expert on low velocity impacts and current case law and medical opinion on them? Do tell.

[lizandlulu]

ok i bow out, i am not going to win this one. it was just my thoughts as i know of at least 3 people who tried to claim for whiplash. they were in what you call 'low velocity impacts' and absoloutly fine, jsut trying it on.
anyway, to the OP YADNBU

[georgimama]

No, no, I bow to your superior knowledge based upon "at least 3 people I know". Clearly such expertise should not be lost. Please continue to enlighten us.

I don't call them "low velocity impacts" the Court of Appeal and House of Lords do.

As you were.

[ChukkyPig]

YANBU.

Today we had a letter from some solicitors saying that someone had agreed to settle for £250 for injuries DH had received in a accident.

The accident was in April. On the form DH put he hit his head a bit. We got a letter from insurance solicitors saying he had to go and see a doc if he wanted to claim.

He wasn't hurt, and we don't like this sueing over nothing business, so he binned the letter. They rang him up and he said he wasn't interested and didn't want to pursue it. He never went to the doc.

So how the hell have they been able to drag it along without our knowledge and get money?

The annoying thing is that the solicitors will be charging the insurance company for their work, probably a couple of thousand or something, and all these fees push everyone's insurance costs up.

Diabolical. It was sharp practice like this which has led to the credit crunch (greed).

[lizandlulu]

its not just that.

i race bangers, ok ok i do have a harness on, but some of the hits i and all of the other drivers get are at around 50 mph. so your head gets flung around alot.

i know its not the same as in a road car, but i just think that a car going slowley and hitting another car should not really make you get whiplash.

but every accident is different and people are not all the same.

so as i said earlier, if you do genuinely have whiplash that a claim would be fine, in my book, but why do it just cause you could have got it

[georgimama]

They won't actually Chukky, the claimant's solicitor can only recover their costs from the opponent if the personal injury claim settles (or is awarded at court) more than £1,000.

Was it a car accident? If so it was probably his mmotor insurers, would have passed it straight to inhouse I expect. Dodgy though, they shouldn't be acting without specific instructions from your DH. Unfortunately parts of the PI industry are dodgy and believe me, they are being cracked down on.

[ChukkyPig]

georgi that's exactly what I mean. His insurance company will have to pay the solicitors fees for a dodgy claim, and from this I would imagine that all the insurance companies are paying out an awful lot in solicitors fees for dodgy claims. Which will hike insurance premiums for everyone as they have to recoup the cost.

Or have I missed your point?

[georgimama]

And sometimes insurance companies will make an offer for very minor injuries such as your DH's even without medical evidence, just to make it go away.

It is often cheaper for them to do so overall than risk the claimant getting medical evidence and being revealed to have suffered a quite serious whiplash or acceleration of pre-existing degenerative changes to the spine which are not yet symptomatic, which would be quite valuable.

Or of course, lizandlulu is quite correct, and everyone is faking. Because obviously no fit young person can get, say, fybromalgia after a "minor" car accident.

[georgimama]

Well you said he was offered £250. So the solicitors won't get paid by the at fault party's insurance company if he recovers less than £1,000.

The solicitors won't charge his own insurers for the referral, most solicitors firms doing PI work pay for referrals, not charge, they would pay the insurance company for a claim that was going to get them decent fees, if it was worth more than £1,000.

Otherwise they'd take the hit and do the minimal amount of work involved in settling for less than £1,000 and not get paid.

[ChukkyPig]

Georgie, but DH did not suffer any injuries. He wrote on the form "slight bump on head". He told the solicitors not to pursue it.

I understand that insurers will settle rather than go to court in a lot of cases, I worked in insurance for 10 years.

Why should they have to pay to "make it go away" when no-one is claiming in the first place, and the solicitors are just generating work for themselves which they charge for, without the "claimant's" knowledge?

I am disgusted. This should not be allowed.

[georgimama]

I totally agree, as I said, they should not be acting when they have no instructions from the "claimant", your DH, and it is dodgy and should be cracked down. And is being cracked down on.

I was just trying to explain how the whole referral and costs business works in PI.

[ChukkyPig]

Really, the solicitors won't be paid at all for this? Amazing.

It's still £250 from an insurance company for nothing, which like I say all adds up and does go to increase the premiums of everyone.

[georgimama]

Not for that case they won't. They may or may not have paid the insurers who referred the case to them as it settled for less than £1,000, most referrers will waive their fee in those circs.

I agree, it does increase premiums all round though.

However, I would not want to go back to situations like in 1940s and 1950s when dock workers were dying of mesothilioma and asbestosis and there was no come back on shoddy employers. Everyone moans about "elf and safety" but people used to be routinely killed at work or crippled and nothing happened. They could have sued, even then, but what access to justice did your average blue collar worker have before "no win no fee" arrangements and the like.

[georgimama]

I'm just trying to say that not all PI lawyers are dodgy ambulance chasers, some of us are trying to do quality work, for people who deserve help.

[ChukkyPig]

georgie nothing personal obviously. In all industries there are people who work hard and do good, and there are greedy people who think nothing of breaking the rules and behaving terribly.

It's just so depressing that we told the ambulance chasers to get stuffed, and they went ahead and pressed for compensation anyway. That indicates to me that certain parts of the industry are out of control.

[VoluptuaGoodshag]

If you have whiplash then it is not unreasonable to make a claim.

If you do not have whiplash then or course it is unreasonable to make a claim.

Simple as that coz it's fraud.

As for your MIL to actually want a collision so she can sue ....... she should be careful what she wishes for.

[georgimama]

God, I wasn't taking it personally, hearing about dodgy "solicitors" (often glorified legal departments within the insurance firm itself) makes me as it tars us all with the same brush.

If you know the name of the firm you could report them to the Solicitor's Regulation Authority.

[glitterball]

catweazle - fraudulent claimants are now prosecuted for contempt of court etc. i think there is also recent case law making them pay back compensation awarded in connection with their fraud. not before time! with respect to the op - if mil makes a claim, she wont get much if she has an extensive medical history - probably a few months discomfort at best if she can convince the medical expert. the experts have certain tests which weed out fakers anyway - so if she tried to exaggerate her symptoms they would almost certainly pick up on that as well.

chukky - was the form your dh completed for his solicitors or insurers? if the former, then on receipt of that the solicitors probably sent a letter of claim to the other driver's insurers - they would have put any other losses in that (vehicle damage, car hire, excess etc) including him having banged his head. the insurers have a minimum of 3 months to respond, which is probably why you've only heard something about it now. as to why the solicitors pursued the claim, i expect they only sent the initial letter before they got a call from your dh saying he didnt want to pursue it. most lawyers wouldnt close a file however without something in writing (because otherwise you get clients all the time saying i never said xyz in a phonecall so we always insist on written confirmation of all important matters!)

as georgi said the other driver's insurance company would rather offer £250 now than risk your dh actually having an injury of more than a couple of days duration (which they couldnt possibly know one way or the other without waiting for a medical report) becuase if he did have an injury worth £1000 or more, they would then have to pay his solicitors fees (on a fixed scale) and the cost of the report etc.

its in the insurers interest to make an early pre-med(ical report) offer to buy off the claim. its not just claimants who can be dodgy though - there are a couple of big motor insurers who do their best to bully people into settling potentially quite serious claims by telling them they will have to pay their solicitors costs (not in 99% of cases they wont), that they will have to attend medical examination/court in london - this is used a lot for elderly clients in rural areas, that they wont get any money for years & will get into debt (not entirely true either )

sorry - bit of an essay

[ChukkyPig]

So it is fine and normal and above board that my DH has been offered a free £250 for absolutely nothing.

You learn something every day! No wonder all our premiums are so high!