Big surge in Personal Injury claims

Dec. 15, 2009 - PRLog -- Is it just co-incidence that the number of no win no fee personal injury claims have soared during the recession?
The most common reasons for making a claim for compensation are road traffic accidents, back strains (back injuries from lifting) or slips trips and falls. As the economic downturn due to recession has deepened, the number of accident claims has risen dramatically. Insurance experts have suggested that this trend has necessitated councils and companies to reduce their expenditure forcing them to neglect important health and safety issues.

The introduction of conditional fee agreements or CFA’s in 1998 was to make the legal system fairer for all. This arrangement with the lawyer or solicitor is what we now know as the ‘No Win No Fee’ claim. This means that a strong case will be heard in court regardless of the financial situation of the claimant.
Previous predictions that road traffic accidents would soar during the period of the economic downturn have actually been proved wrong. Analysts came to this conclusion due to the reckoning that more people would avoid their MOT and other vehicle checks without  available cash to have the checks and any consequent repairs carried out. Reports made by the Department of Transport showed that during the first year of severe economic decline from March 2008 to March 2009 the number of road traffic accidents decreased by no small margin; the numbers were down 8% with a report of a 9% fall in the number of people with minor injuries or suffering severe injury in that same year.
This could be simply because the current economic climate seems to have discouraged car use in general. With high levels of unemployment, fuel price rises and general strain on peoples finances people have definitely changed their driving habits. We know that people have stayed in more forgoing their usual shopping trips or eating out; which added to those who no longer have their usual journey to and from work due to redundancy or job loss would certainly account for the 2% fall in car use over that year.

Despite all this, insurance companies have seen a rise in the number of personal injury claims being made. Figures produced by The Association of British Insurers (ABI) showed no win no fee claims at 9.6 billion last year and this figure is 8.8 billion more than 2 years previously. It certainly seems that individuals are more driven to make a claim in these difficult times than they seemed to be before the downturn, also that people are now more open to the idea of making a claim due to sustaining minor injuries like back strains due to muscle spasm or minor whiplash as opposed to only making a claim due to more severe and lasting problems. But all this may purely be down to the fact that people now know that they can make and win that claim! Whereas in 2007 significantly less people were aware of this fact than they are today due to the relentless advertising campaigns now broadcasting on TV, internet, radio and in most publications. With these no win no fee personal injury companies making it clear to everyone how quick and painless it is to claim compensation if you have been injured in a car accident or in the workplace, it’s no surprise that claims are on the up, recession or not!

Incredibly, councils in Greater Manchester paid out a record £7.4 million last year to people making accident claims due to slips, trips and falls. An issue has been raised that such claims should greatly concern UK tax payers as the compensation being paid out by councils is astronomic. However, similarly to those who have suffered back injuries from lifting in the work place, an experienced injury claim lawyer in Manchester stated that ‘judges can easily see through fraudulent claims.  Cases that have been awarded high payouts have suffered serious injury which they taken a long time to recover from’.
In conclusion… there seems to be a great deal of propaganda surrounding possibly fraudulent personal injury claims being made by people who are struggling for cash in these difficult times but the figures show that in fact there are not more dishonest people than before! Because of the downturn we’ve seen road traffic accidents down on previous years and reduction of car use by those who are economizing or simply need to make less journeys than they used to. Also Salford Council reported that their seemingly huge compensation payouts last year were actually down on the almost £4million they paid out in 2005!

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