‘She was on Facebook doing cartwheels, but insurer said it was cheaper to settle’

:: Claims culture being encouraged, warns lobby group as motorists share their ‘stressful’ experiences

WHEN “Lisa” notified her insurer that the woman suing her was in a video on Facebook doing cartwheels down a city street at a hen party, just weeks after she claimed to suffer a back injury, she was told it would be cheaper to settle instead of fighting the case.

Seven years ago, she was involved in a minor collision with someone from her area. Lisa was driving along in traffic when her baby started crying in the back.

She became distracted and ended up hitting the vehicle in front.

The damage was minimal; a crack on her number plate and a small mark on the bumper.

A few weeks later, she received a solicitor’s letter about a claim for whiplash. Her insurer eventually settled the claim for €50,000, nearly five years after the accident.

“We were crawling along in traffic when my son started crying in the back. I briefly looked in the rear mirror to check he was OK and ended up tipping the car in front,” she told the Irish Independent.

“I jumped out of the car and so did the woman in front, who also had a baby in the back seat.

“She was really nice at the scene and we both agreed that the main thing was our babies were fine… but a few days later her husband called me to say there was more than €2,000 worth of damage done to their car.

“I told them I’d have to go through my insurance to get it repaired.

“A few weeks later, I got a letter in the post about a personal injury claim.

“I called up the husband like a lunatic and he said he wasn’t aware that she was making a claim.”

Lisa’s insurance was hit hard in the following years.

Her premium rose from €400 to more than €2,000.

She could no longer afford fully comprehensive cover and had to settle for third party, fire and theft.

“My friend happened to be friends with the woman on Facebook and rang me up to say, ‘Eh listen, she’s on Facebook doing cartwheels in Kilkenny, not a bother on her’. She showed me the videos, and I told my insurance company, and the response I got was shocking.

“To quote them directly, they said: ‘She has a doctor that says she has a sore back and it’s cheaper to pay her than investigate this’. “They had no interest in investigating, they didn’t give a sh**e,” she said.

The Law Society of Ireland, the legal watchdog, recently reported that Chief Justice Frank Clarke, who is chair of the newly established personal injury guidelines committee, is looking to create an environment where far more personal injury cases are settled outside of court.

It’s a move being mooted to help reduce the backlog in the courts, but those campaigning for insurance reform have warned it will have major implications in the fight against fraud.

“From our perspective, we would be reluctant to see additional cases being settled outside of court as part of the problem on motor cases is that three-quarters of cases are already settled privately,” said Peter Boland, director of the Alliance for Insurance Reform.

“What that means is that defendants don’t get an opportunity to stand up for themselves.

“We have many examples of members where they hotly contested liability but insurers insist on settling.

“Their objective is to spend as little money as possible, but the problem is that that encourages the claims culture that has plagued this country for years.”

“Sarah” is one such person who didn’t get the opportunity to stand up and fight her corner after an insurer settled a claim which she believed to be fraudulent.

Her husband was involved in a minor collision while driving her car and the insurer paid out €18,500 for a whiplash injury, despite a forensic engineer stating there was no significant damage done to either vehicle.

“I lost my no-claims bonus as I was the named driver on the vehicle, my premium went up over the €1,000 mark after more than 20 years driving and I honestly cried with frustration,” she said.

“You can even quote me on this, but it nearly encouraged me to go out and stage a crash myself given how easy it is to get money.

“Not that I would ever do that – I think it’s disgusting.”

The accident happened on the Swords Road at a set of traffic lights. The driver in front stopped at the lights when her husband thought he was going to go through as they were still green.

“I begged my insurer not to pay out, but they insisted it would be cheaper. Even after all this time, just talking about it now has made me so angry about it again.

“This man got money for nothing. He got his money six months after the accident.

“We didn’t even think to take pictures at the scene because it was such a small tip. In hindsight we were very naive.”

Under legislation introduced by Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty, insurers would no longer be allowed to settle claims without notifying customers, or without their consent. However, more than six months since the Consumer Insurance Contracts Act passed all stages of the Oireachtas, it has yet to be signed into law.

Mr Doherty accused the Government of protecting the vested interests of insurers.

‘I lost my no-claims bonus as I was the named driver on the vehicle, my premium went up over the €1,000 mark after more than 20 years driving and I honestly cried with frustration’