In 2012, just a month into owning my second Superb, I clipped wing mirrors with an older BMW 3 series that accelerated up the left lane in a 2 lane approach to traffic lights in a London suburb as I was moving into the left lane.

 

Either he was going so fast he didn't see me indicating in good time and pulling over having checked my mirrors for any oncoming cars OR I failed to see him in my blindspot. I was the one changing lanes so at the time, did the "right thing" and although I didn't admit responsibility to the 3rd party, I did call my insurer immediately and told them to expect a call from the guy involved and thinking it would likely go against me anyway, told them it was my fault. 

 

I was doing just under 30 in the long approach to the lights and the Superb sustained no damage - the wing mirror folded in and there was a streak of tire rubber on the allow wheel. It could have been a lot worse. The BMW had wing mirror damage and supposedly some marking to his wheel but I contested that it was already marked badly. Pics attached.

 

Three years later, I'm getting details from the insurer of claims as part of the renewal process and was aghast to find that the payout for this incident was ~£8,500 broken down into:

• Hire car for 3rd party: £2,353
• Repairs to the BMW: £1,292
• Legal Fees and Personal Injury for Whiplash: £4,580 (claimed 2 months later)

My insurer never told me about the claim for personal injury - so I had no opportunity to contest it, despite a medical certificate being issued in the 3rd Party's favour. I had photographs but didn't supply then.

 

My perspective:

• Under 30mph speed on my side (can't be proven I suppose)
• Side on contact between two car wing mirrors and wheel/tyres that left tiny marks on my wheel and no damage to my wing mirror - so in terms of transferred forces and the direction in which had impact on the other party - whiplash seems unlikely.

 

Thoughts:

• Should the insurer have told me about the injury claim immediately?
• I should have sent the pictures to the insurer - might have helped
• Bring on blind spot detection :-)
• Sounds like a fault-claim management company got hold of it and went for every penny possible, and my insurer didn't bother to contest.

 

All my own learnings, but posting in case it highlights how easily this can happen.

Just sounds like a textbook case of a fraudulent claim backed by a dodgy medical examination for an accident where no one was actually hurt or they were suffering with an existing condition.

no wonder premiums are through the roof.

Similar incident a mate had but at even slower speed in urban traffic, where 2 cars literally just touched and no more full on personal injury claim by the other driver as if he was crippled and loss of earnings as he was a taxi driver (he continued with his fare and never stopped working after it at any point and never stopped fraudulently claiming benefits while working on top of that)....... Insurance company just paid out with little care, I am assuming it's cheaper to just pay out up to £XXXX than what it costs them in time and effort fighting? 

I bet 3/4 of my premium is from rubbish like this. Insurers need to actually make an effort to fight these. Currently there is zero disincentive to try and get as much as you can from them. Its utterly disgusting how broken the system is.

I know that firms will often cave to a lowish claim rather than taking the risk of having to pay out on legal fees.

 

i.e. Dubious claim will come in for £20k etc and company will settle for £500-2000. If they went to court and lost the legal fee are often £20k + the award.

 

It's a deliberate tactic by some. Girls in the office have had summons from a certain firm just for handling a letter; literally for putting the stamp on this company will try drag them to court to drive up fees.

we've gotten out of it so far but I wonder how happy the sherrif would be to actually have his court flooded by typists etc.

Had a similar incident = third party drove into the side of one of my trucks on a roundabout. Damage sustained was smashed headlight and broken wheel trim, plus minor damage to front bumper. Truck came off very well indeed. Eventual claim was close to £20k with personal injury, loss of earnings - 3P claimed he was a taxi driver?