Whiplash Claim

Evening all.

I had a bump at the petrol station forecourt a few weeks ago, my fault, reversed into someone whilst manoeuvring. Not a mark on my car but a dinted bumper for her, which due to the age of the car has written it off.

Turns out she works at the same place as me (massive company) and managed to get my email off the system and send me a message asking for my reg.

Just been told by my insurers that she’s now claiming whiplash. I’m pretty dubious, it was such a low speed incident that I find it hard to believe that anyone could be injured by it. Although I don’t know much about whiplash so anyone had it from a very low speed accident?

Also, anyone had any luck disputing a dodgy claim? We’re waiting on her submitting a medical report.

Thanks for any feedback.
Ed

course she’s trying it on – doubtful that there’s much you can do about it, except stalk her at work & catch her playing murderball in her breaks or something

We had this, and also no damage to my wife’s car.

Contact your insurance company and tell them that while you accepted blame, its not a blank cheque.

I had a huge row with ours once I’d heard that the 3rd party’s passenger was going for whiplash, they were going to just settle.

I contacted the insurers today and they say they can’t/won’t do anything without the medical from her doctor. I explained that I was trying to save them money!

A friend has offered to stalk her at work (in case she recognises me) and try and film her doing something energetic. I think she’s a financial analyst though so probably not much scope for murderball.

email her back saying how sorry you are to hear of her injuries and you hope she doesn’t get too bored, what with being unable to do anything active and wearing a soft collar for work all day every day

… and that you hope she burns in hell

Had thought of a nice email:

Sorry to hear about your neck, funny how whiplash sometimes takes two weeks to appear, and you didn’t mention it in your previous emails? Is it because of your fat head?

Not sure on success though.

Although I don’t know much about whiplash so anyone had it from a very low speed accident?

My car (stationary, behind an RTC) was hit on the rear offside corner by an old bloke skidding in snow. Can’t say what speed he was doing, but he stopped level with me, so presumably not that high? Felt fine at the time, bit of a stiff neck that evening, and worse the next morning. Fine the following day though. So I guess it doesn’t have to be that hard? He was gutted to crash into the back of a parked police car!

Worth asking the petrol station if they’ve got cctv footage. Also, depending on the company you work for, it might be worth an quiet word with HR (if theyre helpful types) or her line manager: “I tried calling **** to make sure she was ok after i heard she had whiplash but didn’t receive an answer….. though i was somewhat surprised given the minimal impact.”

Also, depending on the company you work for, it might be worth an quiet word with HR

Why would HR / her boss be interested or get involved in something that happened outside work hours? It’s up to the insurance company to contest it if they think it’s worth their while, but I doubt they will. It’s annoying, but it’s between her insurance company and your insurance company.

I was about 6 foot from her and reversed back, just didn’t see her, I’d guess the speed was 5mph tops. This was around 6pm and she didn’t have her lights on (she probably should have done, it was pretty dusky at that time then), but I knew it was my fault really and felt pretty guilty. I’m kind of wishing I’d pressed on the ‘no lights’ front but not sure it would have made much difference.

She was very nice about it at the time, understanding and no hint of any injury. I know it can take a while to appear, but she’d jumped out of the car before I had.

I’m considering some sort of nicely worded email to her manager, need to find out how senior she is first as I don’t want to piss off the wrong people.

jon1973:

I guess the hope would be that the manager would email back with a little surprise, and say they didn’t realise there was anything wrong.

Surely if you’re injured enough to try and claim a few grand for it (guessing the amount here) then people you work with should notice something about it?

I see what you’re getting at, but I still think they’d distance themselves from any issue outside the workplace. If it’s not impacting work (like she’s taking time off sick) they I can see them doing anything.

I see what you’re getting at, but I still think they’d distance themselves from any issue outside the workplace. If it’s not impacting work (like she’s taking time off sick) they I can see them doing anything.

I went into the back of somebody at literally 2mph. He claimed for whiplash (but he could still work – as a grave digger according to the documents recieved).

Went to one of these “no win, no fee.. if you win, other party pays our fee” companies. He had a hire car for 2 weeks (to repair a crack in the rear bumper???!!)….

Spoke to my insurers, saying it was outrageous – to save them money! – but they said expected payout would be around £8-10k

I felt quite sick!! £10k!!

Obviously joking here as I have slightly higher moral standards, but what would happen if I suddenly discovered whiplash? Would the insurance company listen more?

It makes me pretty angry, I know she’s not short of cash, as our company pays pretty well and I think she’s been here a while. Wouldn’t most people value their conscience at more than this (relatively) small payout?

xiphon: How did they justify £10k? Isn’t it costs, missed work and a bit for compo?

TBH I can’t see me getting anywhere with the insurance company as the people on the end of the phone probably care as much about their employer’s bottom line as I do.

@edsbike

The company he went to (an ‘accident management’ company) are quite a scam.

The solicitors he used, the car hire company he used, the repair garage he used, the car parts suppliers, etc – all fall under the same parent company. (it’s amazing what a bit of googling can do!)

So if the hire car company invoices them for £500 per day, the costs get passed onto my insurance company. Same goes for the ‘admin’ costs for each step of the way (charging for phone calls, letters, photocopying, etc).

Complete scam, but 100% legal until the Gov clamps down on it…

xiphon: “Spoke to my insurers, saying it was outrageous – to save them money! – but they said expected payout would be around £8-10k”

Crikey after reading that I had acid reflux and vomited inside my mouth …

😯

I recoiled at this thread and now my neck hurts, my life is ruined. Please send me the details of your insurers.

Maybe she’s got whiplash…

Mind you it’s the no.1 blag for car accidents. If she’s got any sense she’ll keep her claim under 5k so it’s cheaper to pay out than defendfor your insurance company.

Either way you are screwed, look where you’re going next time

This may have been mentioned, but surely it’s misuse of company information? She is accessing details of you that are not related to her job. Wouldn’t be allowed in our place.

Does the insurance cover for accidents on private property?

I’ve always been lead to believe if it’s not on a public highway then the insurance company don’t want to know.

elzorillo – a petrol station forecourt is a public road as far as the law (well, the law relating to insurance at least) is concerned.

The annoying thing about mis guided claims for accident compensation, push up the charges for the rest of us, as well as the one she is claiming off, she has obviously been told to claim by a freind etc, and now sees a nice little earner to spend on a holiday etc.

I presume you have already reported the accident to your insurer.

Might be worth taking photos of the area of damage to your vehicle and emailing them in. also worht ringing the garage to see if there’s cctv footage. Impress upon the insurer that it requires investigation. However don’t get your hopes up. At a possibility of settling for £3-4k without an investigation, or likely £10k with, and with a 95% chance of losing, it’s an economic no brainer.

Essentially, whiplash is *so* easy to claim for. her solicitors get to choose their “pet” medical expert, who uncritically writes down everything she says and then presents it to your insurer, who will not have a leg to stand on, and are forced to settle. The alternative is they investigate, it goes to Liverpool or Birkenhead County Court via her “northern based solicitors”, and the bent judges there just not only find against you/your insurer, but then make an improbably large compensation and legal costs order – as if they don’t, then the solictors would take their business elsewhere, and the courts, who earn out of court issue fees paid by solicitors end up £10’000’s of pounds down per week, potentially leading them to lay off staff and or close.

Basically, judges in England and Wales, especially on the Northern Circurt, are as “dishonest/bent” as they can be and remain totally unaccountable for their actions.

Are you reading this, Doyle, O’Neill, Travers and others?

Insurers will no doubt pay out something, probably less than £1000 to her because it’s simply cheaper to do that than to have a lawyer go to court and incur the court costs when they undoubtedly lose as whiplash is very hard to detect and very easy to fake.
You’ll lose your no-claims bonus unless it’s protected and she’ll be using the works computer to book her next holiday while you do overtime to pay for your increased premium.
“Come the revolution” the no win scumbags and those who ambulance chase all the police reports will be lined up against the wall and I’ll be there, waiting, with an itchy trigger finger…

The irony is that the insurance companies are fanning the flames of this whole ‘no win, no fee’ gravy train but selling your details to solicitors when you have an accident. Then they ramp up your premium and blame the rise of ‘no win, no fee’ personal injury claims.

They need to make the referral fees illegal.

Not read all posts but I thought you could only get whiplash from a rear end shunt. i.e. it would be more likely you would have got whiplash as you reversed into her.

That makes sense, but the OP doesn’t say whether he hit the front or back of her car, just that he was reversing.

Obviously joking here as I have slightly higher moral standards, but what would happen if I suddenly discovered whiplash? Would the insurance company listen more?

Your insurance don’t care if you have wiplash. You caused the accident – your insurance won’t pay out for injuries to yourself caused by you.

A friend has offered to stalk her at work (in case she recognises me) and try and film her doing something energetic. I think she’s a financial analyst though so probably not much scope for murderball.

Whiplash won’t stop anyone doing something energetic though – my wife leads a perfectly normal life and has since she was involved in an accident 5 years ago next month. But she still has episodes of extreme discomfort and still pays for medical treatment. IIRC she only got about £2k – nothing like the £10k mentioned above.

you’ll probably find the total claim was about £10k after the solicitor took their fee. It’s a licence to print money.

usual bolleaux on here from armchair lawyers.

yossarian – Member

If she’s got any sense she’ll keep her claim under 5k so it’s cheaper to pay out than defendfor your insurance company.

whats £5k ?? why does £5k matter (I know the answer – it doesnt)

as fopr jujuuk68 – WTF !! bet you think man never landed on the moon as well. Utter pap.

jon1973 – Member

The irony is that the insurance companies are fanning the flames of this whole ‘no win, no fee’ gravy train but selling your details to solicitors when you have an accident. Then they ramp up your premium and blame the rise of ‘no win, no fee’ personal injury claims.

They need to make the referral fees illegal.

Are most people aware that insurers sell PI claims to solictors for anything up to £800 a pop. Most insurers are so inept at dealing with anything to do with claims that they are their own worst enemy.

As for solicitors costs ….are people aware that fixed fees (£1350) were introduced in April 2010 for all claims between £1k-£10k) -probably not.

And if anyone tells you they got £10k for a just a whiplash injury they are lying. (just the injury)

All these claims … bloody insurance cheat she is. 🙄

Just hope that the money she is going to cheat does not bring her bad luck …

Margin? I actually deal with Stage 3 Ministry of Justice Portal claims, and 90% of my litigation workload are litigated at those courts. Do you think it’s just coincidental? The reaons PI has gone banana’s is that those specif northern courts are where a lot of whiplash is litigated, and the solicitors “shop” for the best courts, and for the last 10 years, Liverpool and Birkenhead have been “encouraging” solicitors to use them, by means of fabourable judgments.

No one really cares, the claimants are delighted, no one feels “sorry” for insurers or makes the links to higher premiums, and those who are being sued don’t need to atend court as liability is already admitted and so ncd is already lost – it’s seen as “victimless” by the corrupt judges we have.

If I could get a bit “technical” on some of the abuses and breeches of CPR that the court allows and lets three or four specific local legal firms get away with, you’d be amazed.

Indeed, you won’t find anyone in the ambit of PI claims disagreeing with me, so feel free to insult me, but you simply look ignorant.

Few points:

I reversed into her, the back of my car hit the front of hers, pretty much straight on. It was pretty minor, my first reaction was that I’d mounted a curb that I hadn’t realised was there. Not a chance she could be injured unless she already had a weak neck. There was no visible damage to my car (Mk4 Golf) but there was to hers (old Ford Puma).

It all makes my blood boil but doubt there is much I can do about it other than hope it doesn’t hit my premiums too much. I’m loathed to do much at work for fear of irritating the wrong people or giving the wrong impression. May have a quiet word with my manager about getting emailed at work about it.

Good to see some support against this kind of behaviour. Obviously some whiplash claims are legit, but not this one. A friend from work suggested at the pub tonight that we should time leaving work to be just in front of her then slam the breaks on. Tempting given the circumstances but definitely not the right thing to do.

It won’t be 10k it will be more like 3k, my Daughters car got rammed off the road on a roundabout by an old codger drifting lanes pushed her up the arco and straight into a lamppost , both my daughters were in the car and both received whiplash injury payment but the had pics of the seatbelts imprinted on their chest and shoulders along with other minor cuts and bruises, payout ? 3k each
She also needs to keep going to doctors/physio etc for a year , I crashed into the back of a car full of bodybuilders and they all claimed whiplash even though their necks were bigger than my waist but failed to keep hospital appointments so it was thrown out

Jujuuk68 –

you just come across as a defendant representative with a chip on their shoulder.

I have run a litigated case load for 20 years , pre Wolfe, Pre MOJ so get technical if you want.

I am amazed at your public allegations that judges are bent/dishonest. Are you aware of your obligations under the Law Society/Solicitors code of practice. Highly unprofessional.

Are you really suggesting the extremely learned and professional judiciary is bent/dishonest.

Glad you aren’t representing me.

(If our firm tries to issue out of Birkenhead or any other Court then we are told we are not allowed, we have to use local or the claimant’s court.)

((I do hope those aren’t judges you have listed in your original post)) tut tut

usual bolleaux on here from armchair lawyers.
yossarian – Member
If she’s got any sense she’ll keep her claim under 5k so it’s cheaper to pay out than defendfor your insurance company.
whats £5k ?? why does £5k matter (I know the answer – it doesnt)

Margin walker – I spend a fair amount of time preparing defenses and paperwork against personal injury claims. That means I speak to a lot of insurers. 5k, in my experience, is around the level that a number of insurers that I speak to will consider that mounting a defence is pointless unless there is compelling evidence that it will definitely win. I’m sure you know how much it costs, and how long it takes, to defend a claim. Even one that appears to be totally invalid.

I think you’re pretty much screwed, possibly with CCTV from the garage proving a very slow speed shunt it might be enough to frighten off the claim but still probably less hassle for the insurance company just to pay out.