Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at
5:07 pm
You may have seen on the news recently that a man was being sentenced for his role in staging 93 fake ‘car accidents’ by crashing into innocent drivers and claiming whiplash injuries.
Mohammed Patel was jailed for four-and-a-half years last week, and made the headlines when he admitted deliberately causing the 93 ‘accidents’ over three years
He was paid £500 by each of the cars’ owners to stage crashes in their vehicles, allowing them to claim thousands of pounds for personal injuries – usually whiplash. However, police are now investigating the astonishing possibility that Patel did not work alone and was actually a virtual employee of personal injury claims companies and lawyers who, in turn, would make thousands in fees from the ‘injured’ motorists’ cases.
In the U.S., personal injury claims in which people who have accidents claim for injuries they haven’t got and then pocket the money have been around since the early 1990s. But they only took root in the UK when changes to the law, in 2000, paved the way for the growth of no-win-no-fee litigation. Those changes, introduced by the Access To Justice Act, allowed lawyers to claim ‘success’ fees from losing parties in personal injury claims.
The Insurance Fraud Bureau offers advice on how to avoid being a victim of crash-for-cash fraudsters at www.insurancefraudbureau.org, and has a hotline, 0800 328 2550, where fraud can be reported.
Read more on this astonishing news story here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1224228/The-crash-cash-costs-motorist-44.html#ixzz0VX8rUTSO
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Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at
4:30 pm
The perils of making fraudulent claims was starkly revealed when recently a 58 year old man from Northern Ireland claimed personal injury compensation for injury after a bus crash then later admitted in court that he was not on board the vehicle at the time of the collision.
The man from Castlereagh pleaded guilty to submitting a false insurance claim following the bus crash in Belfast city centre.
Translink the bus company sought to establish through CCTV footage that he was not on board their vehicle. (News Source BBC News.)
Genuine Bus accident compensation claims can be made for personal injury if you are a bus passenger, pedestrian, cyclists or if you have been driving or been a passenger in a vehicle which has hit you. But never make up claims for compensation as it can end up backfiring in court!
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Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at
3:34 pm
A HUDDERSFIELD diver injured in a Middle East oilfield could find his compensation claim determined by Shari’ah law.
The success of million-pound compensation claims brought by Andrew Iles and two other commercial divers exposed to toxic chemicals in Saudi Arabia may depend on the finer points of the 1,400-year-old law.
The trio were exposed to the toxins while working in waters into which hazardous chemicals had been discharged, their lawyers say.
Now the three veteran divers, who have not dived since the incident, are engaged in a test case struggle for compensation.
All three needed protracted hospital treatment and have been physically and psychologically marked by their ordeal. Their compensation claims are estimated at up to £1m.
Now, in a unique test case at London’s Civil Appeal Court, the third party lawyers are arguing that the trio’s claims fall foul of a strict 12-month time limit imposed by Saudi law on labour-related compensation claims and must be dismissed.
However the three men’s legal team insists their cases are not “out of time” and should be allowed to proceed. They maintain the claims fall under the auspices of Shari’ah law – the 1,400 year-old Muslim law code, which does not impose such strict court deadlines.
Further details of this compensation claim can be read in the news article below:
http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local-west-yorkshire-news/2009/10/30/huddersfield-diver-s-1m-poison-claim-86081-25048282/
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Saturday, October 31st, 2009 at
3:15 pm
The Burton Mail has reported that:
“BURTON’S Queenʼs Hospital reportedly paid out more than £4 million in damages for negligence claims in the last five years.”
The claims settlements for clinical negligence appear on the increase.
In 2008/09, Queen’s paid out nearly £690,000 in damages – up from less than £500,000 the previous year.
Burton Hospitals NHS Trust bosses say Queen’s has been praised for how it deals with compensation claims.
Helen Ashley, the trust’s acting chief executive, said that “Any claim received against the Trust is taken very seriously and thoroughly investigated in conjunction with the NHSLA CNST and the Risk Pooling Scheme for Trusts, which covers nonclinical liabilities.”
“As with all other NHS organisations, we do not pay compensation out of our own budgets, and any financial settlement is agreed by the NHSLA.
Cases can often be settled out of court to avoid lengthy trials and to ensure that any outstanding issues are resolved as quickly as possible.
South Staffordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT), which runs clinics and GP surgeries in East Staffordshire, has paid more than £325,000 in negligence claims since 2004/05.
You can view the full article here: http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/burtonmail-news/displayarticle.asp?id=460002
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