Honest views on personal injury claims - no offence will be taken

[jampot]

As some may know I work for a firm of PI lawyers and am interested in how real people (not involved in law) view this aspect of the legal profession. I don't intend to argue back on points and no offence will be taken by honest comments but just wondered what the general feeling was.

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Agree with Yorkiegirl.

Have grave misgivings about the whole area of personal injury claims. Even when someone has been hurt does there always have to be 3rd-party blame attached? What about the fact that accidents do sometimes just happen? And what about personal responsibiity? I believe that the prevalence of such claims is having a detrimental impact on society as a whole. And the legal professionals involved have to bear some responsibility for this too. And also, in a wide-sweeping type statement and with absolutely no backup I believe that such practioners devalue the profession!

You did ask for honesty..

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A woman was standing outside "Boots" in my local shopping centre last week, handing out leaflets encouraging people to claim. I personally feel canvassing like this is wrong and encourages people to perhaps exagerate or fabricate a claim.

Of course Monkeygirl - I was discussing in the abstract. Example - I slipped on some wet marble steps at work and cracked my cocyx. Advised to claim,claim, claim - employer has a duty of care to ensure safe etc. My view it was lunchtime, it was raining and I was wearing ridiculous pointy shoes ! How could they keep stairs dry when whole building coming in and out. And surely I must bear some responsibiity for wanting to show my silly Armani shoes off!!

Other example - class mate at Uni (who proably weighs about 15/16 stone) runs across a rope bridge in a childrens playpark. Bridge breaks and to be fair he suffers a really bad broken leg. BUT claims from local authority and recieves £8k as there were no notices telling porky students to stay off the bridge!!!!!!!!!

I whole heartedly agree with Gomez

Apologies but I see the whole thing like tacky second hand car dealers. The marketing of it all I think is awful.

I had a cold call from a bunch of ambulance chasers- couldn't believe it! "have you or a member of your family been involved in an accident that wasn't your fault". Thought that was appalling.

Trouble is the people I know with serious claims (such as birth injuries caused by hospital failings- leading to a lifetime of being unable to sit up/ walk/ talk/ feed hersefl etc) have a nightmare getting anywhere. Whereas Gomez's porky friend gets 8k for being a complete pratt. take real issue with those claims, but not serious ones. (another example my uncle was on his bike stationary waiting to turn right- a white van drove straight over him- witnessed by 2 police officers- hasn't worked since (this was 5 years ago), has yet to settle but he won't get very much). I think the system is warped actually and petty ridiculous claims are ruining everything (no more conkers!)

I don't think the compensation culture has gone nearly far enough. Of course the ludicrous ones are ludicrous, but tbh I think it's a bloody good thing that employers, retailers etc. have to think about their duty of care to people who work for them/ shop in them etc. I don't see why it's outrageous to expect people who offer public services/ employ people to provide safe environments. I'm thinking about that terrible case of the student who was killed on the first day of his holiday job because the people who employed him couldn't be arsed to provide a safe working environment or give him any training. IMO the directors of those sorts of companies should go to prison. If the compensation culture would give firms like that the kick up the arse they need to provide decent working conditions, then bring it on.

I don't like the claim culture we seem to be getting towards. Like the conker thing Jimjams mentions. there are so many things which are being banned just in case someone gets hurt and claims. A whole load of beautiful, old horse chestnut trees have been cut down locally because a child climbed one and broke his leg. Where is it going to stop?

Dh is currently claiming via his car insurance legal cover for when a woman ran into the back of him, he was stationery at a roundabout.

However at work we have had a few dubious claims.

One employee came into a workshop on a rainy day, his glasses were wet and steamed up and he slipped and fell. He claimed saying the workshop was untidy (another employee signed to say he was there at the time and it wasn't untidy).

There is a claim going on at the moment where an employee who was a passenger in a van is claiming against us because the van was involved in an accident. He is claiming that the employer was negligent as the accident was our drivers fault. Whilst I can see some sense in that I feel that this should be a van insurance claim, not against the employers liability insurance. Also he is exaggerating his injuries.

Meanbean - what about individuals own responsibility to take care/be sensible/think etc.
(Not commenting on the case you refer to as i have no knowledge of this.)

well its become so bad now that we're seeing labels on Peanut butter saying this product contains peanuts and on irons saying do not iron garment whilst you are wearing it - simply because people have made daft claims for these sorts of things and won. Why doesn't the judge say 'your 'avin' a laugh - on yer bike! that might put an end to spurious claims.

I agree that individuals also have responsibility, and I don't agree with frivolous claims, but tbh they are a drop in the ocean. The issue of the compensation culture is wildly exaggerated because they are great stories. All of us laugh/ tut/ grimace at the mad stories of burglars suing householders for having left a rake lying around, but the stories of people suffering injuries because of someone else's negligence, not their own, are just not as popular. Maybe they don't make such good copy.

you've got a point MB - but its because of all the spurious claims that if someone makes a genuine claim everyone is skeptical, especially things like whiplash - its nudge, nudge, oh yeah, sore neck is it? which isn't fair really. I absolutely agree that the real industrial injury type things don't get enough public attention - we should know when employers aren't protecting their workers properly

Meanbean and JoolsToo you are both of course right. I just strongly believe that the whole concept of personal responsibility/accidents happening has been lost. People are just out ot make a quick buck on mnay occasions - perhaps part of the world is due me a living disease which seems to be so prevalent now.

I would however say that I don't think that spurious claims are as uncommon as you think Meanbean.

I think it's all gone a bit too far. Whatever happened to accepting risk? We all take risks every day and it should be down to individuals to decide whether the benefit of an activity outweighs the risk involved. The porky student is typical of today's litigious culture - it should have been pretty obvious that playgrounds are for children; he accepted the risk that the rope might break when he stood on it, so he should have accepted the consequences when it did! Should all cars be banned because sometimes people are killed or injured by them?; Should all hot drinks be served cold in case someone scalds themself? etc etc. It's such a shame that so many public events can no longer take place because of prohibitive insurance costs. Where will it all end?

i am claiming for a car crash that happened in april. basically a 32 tonne lgv cut the vorber, wrote of my car and i now have neck problems. several times in the following months my neck has seized up. its bloody painful. the driver of the lgv has accepted liability, and tbh he ruined out holiday.

but i wouldnt claim for falling over on a wet surface, espically on a wet day, or for spilling the contents of a cup of tea and scalding myself and then saying i wasnt told the tea was hot. people claim for tripping over paving slabs, but i trip over thin air, maybe i sue for that lol.

vorber/corner

Having been put in the postion jimjams talks about, I have to agree.

My Mum knocked a girl over outside a school. The girl ran into the path of my Mothers car and there were witness's. But the incident had to be kept on record for several months incase the girl decided to 'sue', which luckily she didnt and did admit it was her fault.

I have had 'nonsense' compensation claims brought against me and it seems ridiculous.

Accidents do happen and some people are entitled to compensation, but it is getting out of control. The A&E departments are plastered with 'can you claim?' posters

many peope already have a dim view of the legal profession and think that lawyers who encourage claims such as fat bloke in swing park are scum of the earth.
Unfortunately it may put off genuine cases

Agree that is all way out of hand. Our local carnival was cancelled due to "spiralling insurance costs" and this seems to be happening a lot. The tabloids love this and exaggerate of course. I wonder if more people fought frivolous cases rather than just signing cheques to save legal costs it might help common sense to prevail a bit more. People need to take a degree of responsibility for themselves and those in their care.

And also, I think insurance companies need to be challenged. They are mindlessly putting up the cost of insurance on the basis that frivolous cases will be taken, instead of deciding that they will fight them. I recently had to pay extra on my car insurance just because I do a volunteer book round, taking books out to elderly people once a fortnight. Why the hell is that more of a risk than commuting to work?

I have been an observer at a legal firm's training day for expert witnesses in medical negligence cases and it made me even more cynical than I was previously. agree with jasper about negative impact on genuine cases.