Would you claim without injury?

[Tonto]

Years ago I knocked a young lad down on a bike. The bike was wrecked and he went over the bonnet of my car. All my fault and the f**ker coming in the opposite direction who waved me on. Anyway I picked him up off the ground he was a bit shaky and he opened his month, a bleedin dub howayaa, I immediately assumed compo claim. I dropped him home somewhere In Talllaght. The following day I got the dreaded call, his bike was wrecked and he wanted a new one. His was a piece of shit but he wanted say 150 punt. I happily bought it for him and never heard from him again. Made me think twice about judging people by where they are from.

Did he have insurance?  If not, he probably didn't want any kind of investigation into it; nothing to do with being kind-hearted!

[EagleLord]

Very very low action.

There was a wee kunt around here a while back (no other name for him) who was involved in an accident, if you could call it that atall, he said to the father of the other lad in the, crash, 'im guna take yu for every penny you've got'...his mother ( whos not better than this wee kunt) was seen 2 days later pushing him down the park in a wheelchair with a neckbrace on! And few days after that he was seen with crutches hobbling about. I seen him out playing with his dog and a football the next f**king day! Running and jumping about with the pup, not a bit of hurt on him! With my own eyes! My aunt told me to tell someone what I seen! And if it came down to it, I most definatly would have came to court or gave a statement or whatever it took for the wee tr**p to not get a penny. As it happens, the claim was dropped and not a further word about it did I hear. The lad and his mother moved out of the area and still havent not returned, thank God, less of those people around me the better, really made my blood boil.

[southdown]

The media are always having a pop at the so called "claims culture" that exists, and it is true to some extent, we all know that a lot of people fake whiplash etc.

But there are people who suffer horrific injuries (leg amputations, brain injuries etc) who deserve every penny they get if someone was at fault for their injury.

[AZOffaly]

That's a potential strawman there southdown. No is saying that anyone who is genuinely hurt or disabled through no fault of their own is not entitled to be compensated. That is what insurance is for.

The problem is when people just pretend in order to rob the insurance companies, and by extension, you and me.

[gerrykeegan]

Years ago I knocked a young lad down on a bike. The bike was wrecked and he went over the bonnet of my car. All my fault and the f**ker coming in the opposite direction who waved me on. Anyway I picked him up off the ground he was a bit shaky and he opened his month, a bleedin dub howayaa, I immediately assumed compo claim. I dropped him home somewhere In Talllaght. The following day I got the dreaded call, his bike was wrecked and he wanted a new one. His was a piece of shit but he wanted say 150 punt. I happily bought it for him and never heard from him again. Made me think twice about judging people by where they are from.

Did he have insurance?  If not, he probably didn't want any kind of investigation into it; nothing to do with being kind-hearted!

He was on a pushbike he didnt need insurance.

[Tonto]

Years ago I knocked a young lad down on a bike. The bike was wrecked and he went over the bonnet of my car. All my fault and the f**ker coming in the opposite direction who waved me on. Anyway I picked him up off the ground he was a bit shaky and he opened his month, a bleedin dub howayaa, I immediately assumed compo claim. I dropped him home somewhere In Talllaght. The following day I got the dreaded call, his bike was wrecked and he wanted a new one. His was a piece of shit but he wanted say 150 punt. I happily bought it for him and never heard from him again. Made me think twice about judging people by where they are from.

Did he have insurance?  If not, he probably didn't want any kind of investigation into it; nothing to do with being kind-hearted!

He was on a pushbike he didnt need insurance.

Ah, sorry!.  Thought 150 punts was a bit cheap for a replacement motorbike!

[winsamsoon]

Oh i had a great view of the bottom retired a little close for comfort though lol next time i will wear a snorkle lol

[JUst retired]

Try a hurling helmet with a face mask.

[Rav67]

Absolutely not. We've all seen people who've 'worn the collar' to get a few bob, but in my opinion it's no better than theft.

It is theft. No way.

I would be everything I hate if I did that.

A car crashed into the back of Mrs Bs car there last year and the solicitor dealing with her claim for repairing the car absolutely hounded her to go for a personal injury claim on the premise that it is better to claim now just in case you don't feel the after affects for a number of years. He rang umpteen times and even made an appointment with her in some injury clinic in Craigavon Area Hospital (I assume he has some doctor on a retainer). I can see how people would go for it as it's essentially seen as a victimless crime.

However, I wouldn't and the reason is I was involved in an accident seven years ago which was my fault and left both cars mangled and the passenger in the other car had some minor ankle injuries. They could have gone to town but claimed only repairs to their car. The peelers told me I was lucky I crashed into some respectable people. They were right.

Lucky indeed. Even for full recovery within a year they could get around £3k for a modest ankle injury- sprain, undisplaced fracture etc.

[FL/MAYO]

There was an accident here a few years ago, four people jumped into the car after the accident, all were claiming neck & back pain when EMS arrived.

[The Watcher Pat]

The C**T that lives over the street from me is at this carry on all the time... Around Jan this year around the big snow some young girl about 17-18 slid the car on the ice about no more than 2-3 MPH in to her car.. Not a mark on the back of her car...Out come the Police ( as if they have nothing better to do than this) Little did she know that I was looking out the window and seen it all. About 3-4 days later out she pops with the brace on her neck and all...The woman wasn't even in the car at the time she was half way down her path and ran up when the young girl hit the car... The young girl had only just passed her test and didn't even realise what was going on....I took great pleasure in sinking her!

[Elias]

The stats of the poll are interesting, although it could be argued that the posters here are not a sample section of the community as a whole.

I've worked as a commercial lines underwriter for a well know insurer (not Quinn) for 8 years. This is a huge problem for the industry. It's estimated that insurance fraud adds between 20-35% to your insurance premium depending on what type of policy it is.

I read a motor claims report once where a car had crashed into a Translink bus in West Belfast. While the car had rear ended the bus at low speed (20mph), once the incident had occurred, according to the report  "a carnival type atmosphere ensued between many of the passengers, with several shouting 'whippers' 'whippers' at full voice, while demanding the driver disclose his name along with a frantic search for discarded tickets."

[pintsofguinness]

The stats of the poll are interesting, although it could be argued that the posters here are not a sample section of the community as a whole.

I've worked as a commercial lines underwriter for a well know insurer (not Quinn) for 8 years. This is a huge problem for the industry. It's estimated that insurance fraud adds between 20-35% to your insurance premium depending on what type of policy it is.

I read a motor claims report once where a car had crashed into a Translink bus in West Belfast. While the car had rear ended the bus at low speed (20mph), once the incident had occurred, according to the report  "a carnival type atmosphere ensued between many of the passengers, with several shouting 'whippers' 'whippers' at full voice, while demanding the driver disclose his name along with a frantic search for discarded tickets."

Do you not think the insurance industry adds to the problem as they will simply pay out, to avoid legal costs, rather than investigate properly?

[Elias]

If only it was that simple POG.

We spend huge amounts trying to defend suspect insurance claims but the simple matter is that the courts usually favour the claimant in these regards. In the above example despite the general consensus that the majority of passengers were unlikely to have been injured, they all had visited their GP's, complained of neck pains, the GP concurred and the company had close to 15 separate whiplash claims to payout. If we had decided to contest this in court, the result would most definitely have been no different but with substantial legal costs added on top. We need to have significant evidence of fraud before we can bring a court action.

As well as legal costs, the cost of injury claims is significantly higher these days as an insurer has to repay NHS costs if their insured is deemed to have been responsible

[David McKeown]

If only it was that simple POG.

We spend huge amounts trying to defend suspect insurance claims but the simple matter is that the courts usually favour the claimant in these regards. In the above example despite the general consensus that the majority of passengers were unlikely to have been injured, they all had visited their GP's, complained of neck pains, the GP concurred and the company had close to 15 separate whiplash claims to payout. If we had decided to contest this in court, the result would most definitely have been no different but with substantial legal costs added on top. We need to have significant evidence of fraud before we can bring a court action.

As well as legal costs, the cost of injury claims is significantly higher these days as an insurer has to repay NHS costs if their insured is deemed to have been responsible

I wouldnt necessarily agree with that, I have seen a number of times judges throw cases out when it is clear that injuries are being exaggerated or fabricated.

On a similar note a good friend of mine was on a bus about three years ago when a car drove into the back of it.  She was in the back seat and suffered some injuries, bruising to her face, cuts and neck and back damage.  This lady was as honest as you could meet and only took a claim on the basis she was off work for a month or so.  When the matter got to court there were 112 claims against translink for that incident.  She believes there were no more than 20 people on the bus at the time.  As a result she got next to no compensation.