Last week, David Cameron sat down and met with members of the insurance industry at 10 Downing Street to thrash out a possible way of cracking down on the so-called compensation culture currently plaguing the country by seriously tackling whiplash claims. 

The classic tea and biscuits event didn't feature anybody from the legal world.  It also didn't feature any representatives of consumers or accident victims.  You'll forgive us for thinking it was a bit of a one-sided affair. 

Press for the legal industry and PI lawyers on the subject of whiplash claims has not been good for quite some time…probably since the term was first coined in the '50s.  But at a time when running your average car costs the same as a luxury holiday to a tropical paradise, when someone wags a finger at claimant PI lawyers and suggests that part of a car's spiralling running costs is our fault because we're forcing car insurance premiums up is doing us no favours in the world of PR.  It's also going to do the person doing the finger wagging (the insurance industry) a lot of favours.  Moreover, it's frustrating for us because it's inaccurate. 

We've been here before on this blog; claimant PI Lawyers as an industry are not solely responsible for the rise in compensation culture, whiplash claims and by proxy, the rise in car insurance, and claiming we are suggests a single-minded unwillingness to look at the wider picture.  A good place to start with that would be the 2010 Lord Young report, which concedes that a compensation culture exists in perception only. 

Insurers do also play a role.  The fact of the matter is that a claimant PI lawyer always acts in their client's best interest, to get the best result for them.  Many defendant insurers are guilty of offering low settlement figures that realistically, undervalue the claim.  It leads us to take further action against them, often initiating court proceedings.  The defendants are often then very quickly encouraged to settle on a more realistic basis.  Our client gets the win they deserve, but often with more costs to be paid by the defendant's insurer, having a knock on effect on their profit margin and leading them to raise premiums to recover that profit.  Surely it's in an insurer's best interest to make a realistic settlement offer early in the case that they know our client has a good chance of accepting? 

Then there's the issue of whiplash itself; it's a difficult thing to prove, which makes it difficult to disprove too.  Like many other ailments, whiplash-type injuries can affect different people in different ways.  It's why a reputable claimant PI lawyer will always suggest that a client be examined by a medical expert; we know that the strength of the case is down to the medical expert's independent assessment of their symptoms, injuries and their recovery process.  We can then present this information to the defendant and encourage a realistic settlement figure, based on honest evidence.  And an honest lawyer will drop a claim as soon as they even sniff a possibility of fraud.  It's something that JMW Solicitors are on constantly on the lookout for, because fraudulent claims are something we're vehemently opposed to. 

Consumers are also awake to their rights to claim for injuries in a way that they weren't a generation ago.  But to quote Stan Lee, with great power comes great responsibility.  Anyone that were to consider making a claim needs to consider whether their claim is a genuine one, or whether they might be pushing their luck somewhat.  Because, for every rumour that you've heard about someone making a ridiculous whiplash claim, it's not the claimant that comes off badly, it's the solicitor.  We take our client's word on a case, and while we'll get rid of something if we think it's fraudulent, detecting people who've exaggerated the circumstances of their claim isn't always straightforward. 

I don't think it's asking for much for the legal industry to get to have a seat at the table to discuss compensation culture, whiplash claims, the whole nine yards, in a fairer, more rounded way, and work together with insurers, consumers and Government to achieve a solution that pleases everyone.  After all, we pay car insurance too...