Personal Injury fruad – not just a UK issue
Personal Injury fraud not just a British problem
Fraud generally has been on the rise for several years at least, possibly partly because of a degree of economic desperation or greed and partly also because of a creeping feeling that some aspects are not even criminal, of which we will say more in other posts.
However there has most certainly been a big problem with personal injury claim fraud, principally so called postcode or whiplash claim fraud for some time, and rankly the insurers have done far too little to stamp this out. Instead their answer has simply been to a rise premiums for all, so the innocent suffer.
This is truly ridiculous in our view. In some areas of Britain, and even on some streets, individuals claim to be incredibly accident prone, and there is no doubt there have been literally thousands of stage managed shunts and minor accidents.
But this problem is not confined to the UK. Injury claims and accidents are a lucrative business in other parts of the worlds, and the type of fraud is slightly different.
In Florida, to counter escalating costs of claims and fraud, action was taken some years ago to try and curtail it. Law was passed whereby a system of no-fault insurance became compulsory way back in 1972. This meant that all drivers would have to have $10,000.00 of personal-injury insurance cover which they would claim against regardless if fault, with compensatory damages capped at low levels. Entirely sensible and likely to all but eradicate fraud you would think … well think again.
But over the years, the number of claims which mysteriously would amount to the full $10,000.00 has hugely increased. Why ? Yes, you guessed it, cozy cartels, where brokers would make it in the interests of lawyers, doctors and the insured to make the figures inflated.
We suppose this just shows that, rather than increase premiums, insurers should be much more bullish in monitoring all aspects of injury claims and looking to stamp out these trends wherever they arise.
The easy option of simply raising premiums until the problem is so obvious it can’t be ignored is totally outrageous on the law abiding majority in our view. What do you think ?
This post supplied by http://www.claims-personal-injury.co.uk. Many thanks.
