Huge Claims & Ambulance Chasers

leeroybrown

This was starting to brew up on

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59742

so I I'll start a Thread of discussion:

I think that the real problem in the Insurance system at the moment is the mentality of huge claims and ambuilance chasing solicitors. Its so easy to feign what in some cases would be a very serious injury and file a "No win - no fee" type case against the other drivers insurer. All someone has to do is seem hurt, get a sympathetic doctor (your solicitor will have one no doubt) and get some sloicitor to bring it through court for you. If he wins he gets a huge cut and you get a big wad of cash. You loose its as if nothing ever happened.

Now, I've had friends who have put in real claims in cases where they were "Damaged for life". They deserved a decent wad of cash because of the damage they suffered but when you hear insurers mention back seat passangers having claims in the high €100,000's then you're worried.

This is putting such a loading on young drivers these days that literally its nearly as cheap to consider getting a mortgage on a place in town and ditching the car.

mike65

Theres' no question but that the insurnace companies are resposible in large part for the high cost of claims overall, as they won't spend time and money challanging claims which are small enough for them to live with but large enough to swing the lead over if you're a chancer. Some sort of blitz backed by the government/Gardi is needed to scare "Johnny bad-back"
and friends away from making fruadulant claims. It good to see a business like Supermacs start to take on chancers.

As regards no-win, no-fee lawyers I used one when I was hit by a commerical vehicle some years ago, I won my claim for damages. But its true they do tempt the unscupulous.

Mike.

jf_cole

"johnny bad back"

Did u see that late late show with the doctor, the lawyer and the guy from supermacs??

I thought it was brilliant, the insurance company man ( one of those no win no fee dudes ) had lumps taken outta him. he even had a pamphlet with him that tols his clients in this exact phrase: "use your imagination" in regards to your ailments!!

It showed the amount of chancers out there and showed footage of a supermacs toilet where some plonker use the taps to spray water all over the shop and pretend to slip!! They brought it to court and he lost.

Supermacs did a survey to find out about the people suing them. Over 90% had claims in against other companies!! so it shows there are a crowd out there tripping up like a bunch of numpties and suing.

I even saw it happen in boots the other day, a complete plonker made an obvious fall in the middle of the floor, immediately held his back and went for a manager to complain about a slippy floor ( which was totaly dry ).

leeroybrown

Yeah, I remember seeing a few minutes of that particular Late Late Show.

When you sign your insurance forms you sign over your rghts of decision to your insurer. If you have an accident they will tell you to accept responsibility even if you think you can prove you are in the right. If you disagree with them you still have to stick to their decision or risk them withdrawing their cover.

Generally an out of court settlement will be less so obviously the current climate favours the claimant significantly enough to deter insurers from contesting.

Redshift

Have a look in the Golden Pages and see how many Full page colour ads there are for these no win no fee lawyers. People just lash in claims everywhere because they have nothing to lose. The Govt needs to clamp down on this by outlawing no win no fee and or introducing something like a Mandatory Five year Sentence for someone found guilty of making a fradulent claim because this is costing us all dearly.

bugs

Getting kinda tired of all this blame towards claims etc., theres no need for it at all. Its an excuse that the insurance companies use to bump claims.

Most to almost all ppl think that insurance companies simply take in your money, and this constitutes the bulk of their profits. Not even close. Insurance companies are generally investment groups. Hibernian in particular will take your premium, add it to the others and invest it in low yield options. Which due to the mass investment equals a pretty huge pay-out.

The larger claims that are actually paid out are to some degree factored in with the percentage profit they expect to make. In other words, no matter how big the pay-out, the insurance company is far from being robbed. Thats coming from a person who works for hibernian and recently got a bonus despite their actual pay-outs being on the increase.

Blitzkrieger

Terry Pratchet tells a tale about Ankh-Morpork's ruler going mad because the city coffers were empty. The rat population was out of hand so he had offered a silver coin for every rat tail. There was a huge amount of people showing up with rat tails so the city couldn't afford to pay anymore. The new ruler came up with a simple soultion : Tax the rat farms.

Don't just throw the fraudsters in jail, throw the lawyers representing them in jail too.

leeroybrown

Yes the insurance companies like to overcharge where possible and they'll use every possible excuse, but the fact still remains that all these huge claims are giving them ammunition when it comes to justifying massive increases in insurance costs.

Most of their profits come from the return on investment. The same as any other organisation which has a huge "percieved" pool of money (Banks, Building Societies etc). But profit is profit and no company will want to undercut its own margin anywhere in the chain of business. Hence the insurers increase premiums to deal with the huge claims and the uninsured drivers.

Its just that there is a spiralling mentality of huge claims out there. Solicitors who formulate the claim and then go on a no win no fee basis. Ultimately their takings are big due to high percentage fees. A lot of drivers will jump at the chance totake a few weeks off work, wear a neck brace, hold their back and compain a lot if there's a few quid in it for them. After all they're only getting back their lost insurance money. Vicious circle !!!

mike65

The Justice Minister Michael McDowell was on RTE radio
today talking about ending the ambulance chaser
syndrome, it seems new legistation is imminent.

He seemed to understand the scale of the whole insurance disaster saying "we" did'nt work 15 years to reduce the tax wedge only to see it replaced by an insurance wedge.

Mike.