MPs consider the effect of whiplash claims on motor insurance premiums The UK Parliament’s Cross-Party Transport Select Committee published its report “Cost of Motor Insurance: Whiplash” on 31 July 2013. The Westminster Government’s perception is that there is an increasing number of whiplash personal injury claims following road traffic accidents – some of which are invented by the supposed victims and, even where genuinely-based, the extent of the injury is often exaggerated. In the Government’s eyes, this is pushing up the cost of motor insurance. The Government has described the UK as “the whiplash capital of the world”. The Select Committee considered these issues as part of its remit. What is Whiplash and Why is it Problematic? The definition for whiplash used by the Committee was: “The neck pain which occurs after the soft tissue in the spine has been stretched and strained when the body is thrown in a sudden, forceful jerk.” This is a typical result of the Continue Reading
Not Wearing A Seatbelt: How It Can Affect Your Personal Injury Claim
General issues about contributory negligence in PI cases In many personal injury claims, though it’s clear that the accident was the fault of someone else – which means the claim should succeed - there can be arguments about whether you as the injured person should share some of the blame for the accident. This is what is referred to as contributory negligence. It is often possible to counter arguments for contributory negligence, meaning that your claim succeeds in full. It is up to the other side to prove contributory negligence applies in the circumstances rather than being up to you to prove that you did take proper care for your own safety. If contributory negligence applies, your compensation will be reduced. In our experience, across the personal injury accident spectrum, reduction rates most often tend to be in the 10% to 25% range. In other words, for example, if contributory negligence is 25% then you lose one quarter of your damages. Why the level of Continue Reading
If someone runs into the back of you, is it always their fault?
The general rule is that, if you are driving a vehicle and run into the back of someone else, it will be your fault and you will not be able to make a claim against anyone else. This law seems to be generally well understood. What if the driver in front behaved unreasonably? From time to time, we get enquiries from people who have rear-ended another vehicle but consider that the accident was not their fault because the driver in front stopped their vehicle suddenly or without good reason. An example of this is where you are second in the queue at a T-junction and you and the car in front are both turning left. You can see there is plenty time for you to turn onto the main road as well as for the car in front of you. Your attention is maybe more to the right than in front of you as you have no reason to expect the car in front not to ‘go and keep going’. However, for some reason, the car stops. Maybe the driver stalled or decided it wasn’t safe to proceed. In that Continue Reading
Can I Choose My Own Personal Injury Solicitor?
The answer is generally “yes”. Please read on for an explanation. In many situations if you have been injured as the result of an accident, you will have other property losses that will be insured and you will be contacting your insurers to claim for those. The most common example is road traffic accidents. Your car may well have been damaged and you will contact your insurers to see about repairs or a replacement vehicle. Your motor insurers will these days usually ask you if you have been injured in the accident. If you have been injured, they will refer you on to a specific law firm as if it is “the normal thing to do”. It is important to be aware that there is a financial relationship between the insurers and the solicitors they recommend to you. The relationship operates on the basis that the insurance company agrees to pass on all their claims to the solicitors and the solicitors pay a referral fee for the privilege. It means that the recommendation is not necessarily Continue Reading
Winter driving means an increased risk of accidents: what steps should you take?
Wintry weather is persisting into March around the Moray Firth. Inevitably, in winter, there tends to be an increase in road traffic accidents. At this time of year, we are more likely to be driving in the dark and on roads affected by snow and ice. Repeated freezing and thawing also increases the number and size of potholes in the roads. What steps can you take? Equipment to carry in your vehicle The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) recommends certain basic safety equipment to keep in your vehicle at all times, so you are prepared if the weather deteriorates. This should include a towrope, de-icing equipment, a spare wheel, a torch, a first aid kit and a warm blanket. Checks on the vehicle itself In addition, you should check that your vehicle itself is properly prepared for winter conditions. Check your tyre pressure regularly and ensure that you have sufficient tyre tread as this will reduce the risk of loss of traction and skidding (as well as improving Continue Reading
Whiplash injury: one way to reduce the risks
Whiplash gets a lot of negative press. It is a type of injury where there is scope for people exaggerating their aches and pains to get more compensation or even inventing them completely. The Westminster Government is currently on a mission to weed out spurious claims. On the other hand, if you have ever suffered a whiplash injury to your neck or back, you will know it is not something to be taken lightly. The injury is very real. Whiplash can cause a considerable amount of pain and inconvenience to the injured person. Everyone knows that prevention is better than cure and here’s an idea for simple action you can take to reduce the risk of you being the victim of a whiplash injury. It all boils down to proper adjustment of the head restraints in your vehicle. How best should you position the head rests in your vehicle? It is not sufficient to have a head restraint attached to the top of your seat. You must make sure it is adjusted to be in line with the top of your Continue Reading
Accidents on Rural Roads
RoSPA - the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents - published a policy paper (August 2010) addressing the safety of rural roads, which could be of interest to you if you have suffered personal injury on the roads in Moray or elsewhere in the North of Scotland. The publication points out that rural roads have not seen as rapid a fall in accident rates as urban areas in recent years. Rural roads still account for over 70% of fatal road accidents. RoSPA is of the view that simply managing the road environment itself can help to reduce the number of incidents where the road is a primary or indirect cause of the accident. According to RoSPA, some useful options are to alter the perceived road width with markings or roadside islands or by changing or removing the centre line. "Forgiving roadsides" can also help reduce the risk and severity of injury sustained if a vehicle leaves the main carriageway for a short period. If you have been injured in a road accident then Continue Reading
Whiplash injuries
Whiplash claims now make up about 70 per cent of all motor accident personal injury claims. Whiplash injuries are caused by the neck and head being thrown suddenly backward then forward during the accident. The neck and head are forced beyond their normal range of movement and this results in damage to soft tissue and pain. Most people make a full recovery from this type of injury and, where neck and back symptoms last perhaps three to six months, courts will award damages of between £1,500 and £3,000. Because whiplash does not involve broken bones, there are few objective signs of injury. At the moment, claims for whiplash injuries are under fire from the Westminster government and the insurance industry because there is clear temptation for exaggeration of symptoms by claimants. The House of Commons Transport Select Committee heard evidence in 2011 that the insurance industry loses £2.1 billion per annum to fraudulent claims, whether by “cash for crash” staged accidents or Continue Reading