Welcome to: Whiplash Claim

There's no such thing as an easy compensation claim

Today the insurance industry faces the problem of embellished and phoney whiplash claims and the cost has risen to an annual payout of millions of pounds per year. The problem is in accurately and scientifically measuring pain of individuals making these claims.

Insurance industry statistics show that of the £1.25 billion paid out every year in whiplash claims, a full £125m could be paid to individuals having made fraudulent claims and with no real way to measure the validity of these claims, the insurance industry must continue to pay out.

Help is on the way for the industry through fundraising to fight fraudulent whiplash claims. Funds are being raised to have the Motion Analysis Research and Rehabilitation Centre (MAARC) at Worcester University conduct specific research into measuring whiplash pain. MAARC plans to study and statistically map all normal muscle movement; providing an industry standard for measuring suspect claimants by and that would allow physicians the ability to accurately and expediently diagnose the level of damage, if any, caused by whiplash.

The insurance industry has looked to MAARC to conduct the research project study to maintain a low profile to bring in the potentially fraudulent claims as well as truly damaged individuals. If the insurance industry were to conduct this research themselves it is widely believed that 95% of all questionable claimants would not show for testing.

This new technology would be a boon to detecting fraudulent claims, but would need to be proven scientifically so that it could be used as evidence in actual court cases. Insurance industry management personnel also show concern that the research not slow the process of legitimate claims as time delays in disbursement could result in higher settlement costs.

Of course this is not the only strategy used for determining the validity of whiplash claims and other insurance companies look to more intensive investigation of the accident, the extent of damage to the vehicle and collaborating with medical and engineering experts to identify fraudulent claims and verify legitimate claims of whiplash.

In December 2005, a court of appeal hearing, Kearsley v Klarfeld regarding a soft tissue injury from a low-velocity collision might decrease fraudulent personal injury whiplash claims as it requires medical notes to be produced very early within the claim process.

To date MAARC has established muscle maps for the lower half of the human body for use with professional sports injuries, but MAARC is fully prepared to broaden its research to all areas encompassing pain radiation stemming from whiplash such as the neck and other areas. MAARC would also test for other factors that may be causing the claimant pain such as psychological issues. Subsequently, they would use the whiplash pain measuring tool by putting electrodes on key muscles of the head, neck, back, shoulders and other areas that are causing problems and identify if there is a true physical issue, if the claimant is exaggerating or if the claim is fraudulent.