subject: Cracking Down On Whiplash Claims [print this page] The AA, Britain's largest motoring organisation, has called for more to be done to stem the tide of whiplash claims that it says added an estimated 90 to the average car insurance policy last year.
The AA said that whiplash claims cost insurers in excess of 2billion in the previous year - costs which are inevitably passed on to policy holders. The comments were made by Simon Douglas, the Director of AA insurance, during a summit on insurance in London. Mr Douglas called for a range of new measures to reduce the number of whiplash claims in the UK, such as clamping down on cold-calls by claims management firms to accident victims.
"I hope that today's Government announcement will see a tight timescale applied to reform of civil litigation which at present, encourages people to make a claim regardless of how serious their injury is or even if they have not suffered injury at all," said Mr Douglas.
Meanwhile Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke said that the UK Government plans to make it, "quicker, cheaper and easier for valid injury claims to be dealt with through the small claims court," while at the same time cracking down on fake claims.
Whiplash symptoms
Whiplash is a medical condition that occurs when ligaments in the neck are stretched by a sudden, violent movement, such as that which often occurs in road traffic accidents with relatively low-speed front impacts or rear end collisions. Symptoms include loss of feeling and tingling in hands or arms, headaches, nausea and stiffness of the neck. These symptoms can take a number of days to present themselves, and though they often dissipate after a few weeks or a month, can last for more than a year. In such cases, whiplash can be highly debilitating and result in time off work and frequent discomfort.
Whiplash in Scotland
While any decisions taken at the summit will not affect the claims process in Scotland, similar issues are under discussion, and according to the British Insurance Brokers' Association (BIBA) Scotland has just as high volume of claims as elsewhere in Britain, despite lower legal fees being available than in England and Wales.
Back in February, BIBA Chief Executive Eric Galbraith said that the rate of whiplash claims for Scotland is, "about the same," as elsewhere in the UK. He went on to say that: "The claims process at the moment is pretty flawed, something has to change... insurers have to take back control of how claims are dealt with - if that is not done, [insurance] costs will continue to rise."
The UK government is expected to outline a number of proposals for reducing whiplash claims this summer, including the introduction of independent medical experts to assess whiplash injuries, rather than fee-collecting GPs as is the case at present.
Finding a balance
Many are concerned however, that efforts to tackle fraudulent whiplash claims are tempered by a need to ensure that those who are genuinely injured get the compensation they deserve. Karl Tonks, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers commented that: "Whiplash injuries are real, they can be long term, and must not be trivialised... I'm really concerned that in all the latest populist rhetoric about whiplash claims, everyone is being tarred with the same brush."
