Welcome to: Whiplash Claim

There's no such thing as an easy compensation claim

Sheffield puts the blame for escalating costs of personal injury claims at the feet of the claims management firms that have sprouted up all over the country. They approach people in malls, on the street and even knock on their doors at home trying to drum up business. In some cases, they actually encourage people to lie to make a claim against the government authorities.

Sheffield Today gave the example of the council's chief health and safety officer who broke his arm climbing. He was approached by a claims firm who advised him to lie and say he fell on a piece of broken pavement so that he could claim for compensation from the council. Costs associated with these claims firms have caused council payouts on personal injury claims to skyrocket.

In 2000/2001, Sheffield Council paid out £205,131 in claims of which £21,587 went for claimants' legal fees. In 2004/2005, they paid out £583,333 and £275,956 was for legal fees. John Harrison was quoted in Sheffield Today as saying, "Before people just wrote letters of complaint but now a large proportion of claims got through one of these companies".

Sheffield council is not a walkover when it comes to personal injury claims. They investigate and defend themselves rigorously. Since most claims come from "slippers and trippers" along the council's roads and pavements they have a maintenance schedule to ensure that they are not found negligent. Mr. Hetherington of the Street Force Department told Sheffield Today, "They have to prove the council has been negligent. It's not true that where there is pain there's a claim".

The council has had numerous fraudulent claims. In one, a man claimed he received a whiplash injury to his neck when driving over a pothole on one of the council's road when in fact he had fallen off his kitchen table. In another case, a man wanted a payout for being hit in the head with a streetlight, what he failed to point out was that he had been swinging on the streetlight when it hit him on the head. Another man attempted a claim for the death of his doge who died urinating on a lamppost. The government is calling on claims management companies to act responsibly. New legislation will force them to do just that when a code of ethics and the regulatory body is established.