The Battle Against Fraudulent Personal Injury Claims

In the past few weeks there have been articles on websites, newspapers and even on the television about the recent convictions for instigators of “cash for crash” schemes; South Wales, Chester and other areas across the UK have reportedly been targeted by such schemes. The fight against personal injury claims has been publicised more prominently over the past few weeks and has coincided with the Government’s recent plan to abolish whiplash claims.

Insurers are now quite rightly taking a strong stance on those who feel that they can financially benefit from fraudulent schemes of this nature by requesting that those who try and make money from personal injury claims are referred to the High Court for sentencing or to ask for police involvement.

As a Personal Injury Claimant Solicitor I certainly welcome their approach and the more that can be done to eliminate fraudulent claims for personal injury such as whiplash and accidents in the workplace - the more beneficial this will be to genuine claimants across the country. As the nations negative perception of personal injury claims gradually change, genuine victims of accidents through no fault of their own may be more willing to put forward their claims without fear of prejudice or judgement.

At Kirwans, we adopt a robust vetting policy to try and ensure that all claims for personal injury are genuine - this includes making checks with a database to see if a Claimant has made a previous fraudulent claim for damages. Furthermore, the Courts are now adopting a stance whereby if a claim is found to be dishonest the Claimant can be punished financially and even have committal proceedings commenced against them which could result in imprisonment.

More and more is therefore being done to tackle dishonest claims for personal injury and hopefully the procedures adopted by both Claimant Solicitors, Defendant’s Solicitors and the Courts will help to deter those people who decide to make fraudulent and dishonest claims. This will hopefully separate the truth from fiction and will ultimately eradicate the negative media and public perception of personal injury claims, which in its essence was established to ensure that the public are protected and safe from harm in both the workplace and in their day to day lives.