Fake whiplash claim?

Robert Smith

New Member
Nov 13, 2010
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Hello all,

Three months ago I was in my car driving back from a festival with four of my friends on board when we decided to pull into McDonalds to get something to eat. I pulled into the drive-thru when we all realised our money was in the boot of the car.

Admittedly my rear view mirror was obscured since we had alot of camping gear in the boot, however upon checking my wing mirrors I couldn't see anything behind me. I reversed out doing a maximum of 5mph, and even im sceptical as to whether I was really going that fast, I collided with the car behind me causing VERY minimal damage to the claimants car (The damage is literally an inch long scathe of paint removal - almost unnoticable in comparison to the other scratches on the bumper) Upon realising I had hit the car I got out to check the damage, the claimant comes bounding out screaming that they will need a new bumper and a courtesy car, this, that and everything else. I provided photos to back up the minute damage caused to the car and this is currently being looked at.

A few days ago I recieve another call from my insurance company that the claimant is now claiming for Whiplash/soft tissue damage. I was to say the least very unhappy and was completely shocked. Clearly trying to exploit an already out of proportion incident. At the time of the incident the claimant said nothing about being in pain and was more concerned of how much money I was willing to cough up for compensation. I have read up on Whiplash and realise that there is the possibility of a delayed onset of symptoms, however im finding it VERY hard to believe that after three months have passed since the incident the claimant is now claiming for these injuries.

This is my first ever road accident and I am very worried that I am going to lose my no claims bonus. My insurance company is currently sorting the situation out but I feel helpless and at the mercy of this possible fake claim. I read somewhere that I have the right to an independent assessment of their medical status or something along those lines.

Is there any advice you could give as to what I can do to help myself in this situation?



Thank you very much for your time.

Regards,

Rob.

p.s. Any other information that may help you understand the situation, just ask.
 

holliejames830

New Member
Nov 10, 2012
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Well unfortunately you can't do anything about it. Your insurance company would just have to deal with it. But they have the option to deny the compensation if they could prove that no severe whiplash or what so ever happened to the claimant. Medical reports should be presented before they release the compensation.
 

T.C

New Member
Jan 5, 2011
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As a crash investigator and someone who works on the right side of personal injury law, the scenario you describe is not uncommon, and it is usually someone who has thought that they can simply exploit a situation.

It is very rare for an impact of this magnitude to result in a whiplash injury, (soft tissue injury as you rightly say) and therefore you need to speak to your insurer and get them to flag up the third party as a potential scam claimant.

At some stage the claimant will be required to attend an independent medical examination, and the medical experts have certain checks they can do to ensure that it is a genuine whiplash injury, and if the claimants own solicitors appoingt their own expert, your insurance company can counter this and ask for one of their experts to also carry out an examination.

That is provided of course that your insurers are prepared to fight your corner as most will just roll over and concede.

Unfortunately, you have said yourself that there was damage, and so liability for the cause of the damage to the claimants vehicle is unlikely to be contested, so that will in any case affect your no claims bonus, but I would certainly get your insurers to flag up the potential fake injury claim.
 

nads205

New Member
Nov 30, 2012
11
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Hey dude, sorry to hear about this.

How many NCD did you have? You'd only lose 2 years at the most.
 

BTS6463

New Member
Dec 4, 2012
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Nottingham
I was involved in a collision about three years ago on a crossroads with traffic lights in Nottingham. The collision was at about 10mph, a car made a turn across my path & I drove into the side of it!
I moved past & pulled over & got out of my van. The female driver of the car came over & said "I'm very sorry, are you hurt?' to which I replied "no, are you?'. Then her male passenger limped over while rolling up his trouser leg. "Look, I'm injured, look at my leg" pointing at a graze the size of a ten pence piece.. I pointed out that they should not have made a turn straight in front of me. We exchanged details & went our seperate ways. The insurance claim took months! My MOT was approaching & I knew full well that my van would not pass an MOT without repairs so I started chasing the insurance company. They informed me that the male passenger was trying to claim £5,000 in damages for his grazed leg. I was very quick to point out (I was furious) the full extent of his injury & they thanked me. A few weeks later I got authority to repair the van & have since found out that the insurers declined his claim & held them responsible for the collision.
 

david_ballard74

New Member
Jan 3, 2013
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Always good to hear that the fake injury guy didn't get away with it. You see so much of this on the roads today, people trying to fake injury to make a quick buck. They should be prosecuted.