Wednesday 17 July 2013 by John Hyde
Claimant
solicitors have dismissed a report into whiplash by insurer Axa as
‘highly biased’ and based on inaccurate or outdated statistics.
The insurance giant yesterday put pressure on the government to
impose new medical and time limits for making low-value RTA claims.
The report pointed to countries such as Sweden and France as proof
that the number of exaggerated or fraudulent claims will fall if the
threshold is set higher.
But the Motor Accident Solicitors Society today rejected Axa’s report
and said it ‘promised enlightenment but delivers only a blinkered
view’.
In a statement, MASS said: ‘There are real dangers in trying to draw
direct comparisons across different legal systems which have alternative
structures, classifications of injuries and systems of award.
‘Other countries may have a smaller proportion of whiplash claims,
but this is likely to mean that genuine accident victims are not
compensated and cannot access the support and rehabilitation services
that they need.’
Axa had claimed that whiplash accounts for just 3% of all bodily
injury claims in France, but MASS argued this figure was back-dated to
2004. The claimant organisation said the insurance industry’s own
research, published this year, found there had been a 1,000% increase in
whiplash claims, which now account for 30% of all PI claims.
Axa had lobbied for whiplash claims to be rejected without an x-ray
or MRI scan, but MASS said it was ‘disingenuous’ to impose such rules
for a soft-tissue injury.
The group added that by excluding injured people from receiving
damages, more pressure would be placed on the NHS and the benefits
system because it would have to support claimants unable to work.
The Law Society, which is running an advertising campaign urging
accident victims to go to a solicitor, also dismissed the Axa
recommendations.
A Society spokesman said: ‘Whiplash can cause real, painful and
debilitating injuries, not always revealed by x-rays or MRI scans. There
is evidence that some insurers have offered paltry, insulting sums in
compensation for nasty injuries.
‘We are not interested in defending the small minority of accident
claims which are fraudulent, but anyone who has suffered a genuine
injury should get advice from a solicitor.’
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