What ‘whiplash’? Another injury victim fights back!

Posted 06/08/2013

Tom Ranson of Ashtons Legal injury services has obtained compensation for Mr H, who required medical treatment and specialist orthopaedic review after suffering a whiplash injury in a road traffic accident.The defendant insurer originally offered £1,850, which increased to £2,750 before their ‘one time only’ offer of £9,250 was made before Court proceedings were issued. This then increased to £13,600 after proceedings were issued, rising to £25,000 around eight months later. A settlement of £40,000 was finally agreed following hard fought negotiations.Mr H, who works for a cleaning company, refused to allow himself to be intimidated by the defendant’s strong arm tactics which, following the issue of proceedings, was fuelled by the ‘alternative’ opinion of the defendant’s medical expert. Mr H was happy to follow our advice to pursue matters all the way to trial, if necessary, to ensure the right result was obtained.As the settlement figure reveals, Mr H was entirely vindicated, achieving over 20 times the amount of the insurer’s original offer.Tom Ranson comments: “Unfortunately, Mr H’s case is by no means an isolated incident. With the cost of litigation very much at the forefront of all our minds, it is 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 and unreasonable reports from their experts, 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 settling claims at an undervalue.”