Insurer Axa is proposing a tight limit, three days post accident, for whiplash claims.
www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/axa-calls-three-day-limit-whiplash-claims
Can see need to tighten up but that looks far too short for symptoms never mind for a lay client to get moving.
What does the panel think?
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There may be genuine whiplash injury claims but I am convinced that the vast majority are fraudulent. Ambulance chasers advertise on TV and send junk texts and emails encouraging people to make these fraudulent claims. It's a constant, widespread disgrace that lowers one's faith in human nature. Is everyone in the country a snivelling lying crook? It sometimes seems so.
The only two I know about were entirely fraudulent. But they got paid.
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The three day limit is to forestall the influence of the "claims management" crooks engaged by enemy insurers.
There are medical experts who believe there is no such thing as whiplash.
Bring back the prohibition of champerty and maintenance, and whiplash claims will disappear. They are AFAIK almost unknown in many other countries.
Last edited by: Manatee on Wed 17 Jul 13 at 00:03
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Seen a few.
The all improved after payout (or at least improved to the point that further physio/painkillers appeared unnecessary).
£1500+ for a few weeks of sore neck is a sad joke.
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>> £1500+ for a few weeks of sore neck is a sad joke.
Let alone four grand for an alleged sore neck.
My daughter, driving her two children to school, carelessly touched the back of the car in front with the front bumper of her then Golf I think. There was no mark of any description on either car except perhaps a place where some mud had been displaced. But no impact damage, none at all. The children sitting in the back didn't notice any impact.
The driver of the other car - a middle-aged Scotswoman my daughter said - leapt out of her car and rushed about complaining of whiplash, displaying the sort of energy and mobility that would be unusual in someone with a couple of dislocated vertebrae... I think the insurance settlement was four grand.
All happened in a very posh square in Notting Hill.
Whiplash is fraud.
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>>There are medical experts who believe there is no such thing as whiplash.
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I am one person who thinks they are talking tosh.
A few years ago I was in the back seat of a car being driven in Guildford near Perth WA when at low speed we were rear ended.
It was very painful and as a precaution we went to a Perth major hospital and were checked over by a UK medic friend of my daughter.
In spite of no rear head rests, as far as I am aware, I have no lasting problems and I only claimed for basic medical treatment.
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I take it that they will pay out just as quick, then?
My son suffered a whiplash injury in June 2010, when the car in which he was a passenger was involved in a collision on the A12 and then rear ended at over 60 mph by the following vehicle. He was unable to work for seven weeks suffering a loss of wages and was unable to play cricket for over six months, he's a bowler, and spent some time in constant pain and on painkillers.
To be honest, when I saw the car he had been in after the accident I was amazed that he and his mate had survived and was grateful that he'd 'just' got whiplash injuries.
Even though two of the other drivers involved were prosecuted and convicted of various driving offences their insurance companies have continually played cat and mouse over whose responsibility settlement of his claim for loss of wages, etc, should be and have wriggled and squirmed in an effort to avoid settling. He finally had an offer to settle, which he accepted, one week short of the third anniversary of the accident, he has now settled and is waiting for the cheque to clear as I type.
Also, I take it that the three days they are proposing is of notice to lodge a claim? In my son's case it would have been impossible to lodge a definitive full claim in three days due to him not knowing the full extent of his losses and his injury.
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That one sounds genuine Cockle. Has he healed decently, made a full recovery?
Your point about the time limit is good too. The proposal seemed a bit wrong to me and you have explained why.
If the three-day limit is adopted there will be a new policy for lawyers and claimants, some sort of preemptive open-ended claim 'just in case'. Lawyers will come up with a formula. And something like that will of course be open to exploitation. Like so many modern laws.
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Trust me, Armel, it was genuine.
It's not nice watching your big, strapping, 6'2'', lad crying because he can't get relief from the continual, nagging pain and discomfort, even with the painkillers.
He pretty much healed OK although he reckons he's lost some pace and control when bowling and gets a bit of stiffness on occasions that he never used to get before the accident but it's difficult to say that it is definitely connected.
As it stands he settled in the end for about £2000 more than his loss of wages, certainly hasn't made him rich but he's just glad to get it settled and I don't think that's overly much for all the pain and discomfort plus the loss of a season's cricket, also some of that will go to paying the interest on his credit card that he had to use while he wasn't earning.
There are very obviously a lot of fraudulent claims out there, and an awful lot of ambulance chasers trying to make money out of it so I agree something has to be done but it's another one of these things where it's not black and white but lots of shades in between.
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I too have suffered genuine whiplash.
In fact, years later I am still suffering, I have reduced mobility when turning my head to the left, and occasional low level pain - nothing I can't live with, but it does niggle at me..
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>> I too have suffered genuine whiplash
Obviously I know nothing of your medical history, but accidents, whether 'whiplash' or using the 'wrong sort of ladder' (har har) are very good at highlighting previously symptom-free problems such as osteoarthritis or cervical spondylosis (wear and tear of the spine in the neck).
Normally the injury that should resolve in 3-4 weeks never really resolves and I guess in effect has brought forward the date where the 'wear and tear' was eventually going to become symptomatic.
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Whiplash Claims - Armel Coussine
