Vindicated a “whiplash” victim fights back!

Posted 28/06/2012

Tom Ranson of Ashtons Legal injury services has obtained compensation for the claimant, Mr B, who required medical treatment and specialist orthopaedic review after suffering a whiplash injury in a road traffic accident. A ?20,000 settlement was finally agreed a few days before the case was due to go to trial.The defendant insurer originally offered ?2,540 before Court proceedings were issued, with their “best offer” of ?10,000 being made around three weeks prior to trial. Despite having admitted liability, the insurer refused to negotiate. Indeed, at the 11th hour (coinciding with their “best offer”), they attempted to allege, without any supporting evidence, that this was a “low velocity impact” case and that the injuries could not have been caused in the accident. This was clearly a cynical attempt to bully Mr B into submission.Mr B, who works for a nationwide company of loss adjusters, refused to allow himself to be intimidated and was happy to follow our advice to pursue matters all the way to trial, if necessary. As the settlement figure reveals, Mr B was entirely vindicated, achieving nearly eight times the amount of the insurer’s original offer.Tom Ranson comments: “Unfortunately, Mr B’s case is not by any means an isolated example. With the cost of litigation very much at the forefront of all our minds, it is somewhat baffling that insurers routinely fail to grasp the realistic value of the claims before them. Instead they choose to make derisory offers, run cases that they should settle, often ‘muddying the water’ with spurious allegations, all of which significantly increase the cost of litigation through no fault of the claimant. Needless to say, it is vital that claimants and their representatives are robust and give short shrift to such tactics to avoid claims settling at an undervalue.”