Whiplash can be a lucrative business
Editor:
Re: Cutting legal fees key to rescuing ICBC, Les Leyne, The Daily Courier, July 27, page A6.
For many years, B.C. has been blessed with an aggressive litigation system with favourable financial outcomes for lawyers who represent the so-called soft tissue injury claims.
A 2002 study of the ICBC costs for whiplash found that lawyers were paid about 10 times the amount paid to medical doctors, physiotherapists, chiropractors, and massage therapist combined (Allen M, BCMJ 2002;44(5)241-242).
It was also noted payouts for whiplash represented just under 60 per cent of all injury claims, and B.C. had the highest rate of whiplash claims per population of any other jurisdiction in the world.
Some would say our whiplash injury claims are “other worldly.”
Some countries, such as Lithuania, had a zero whiplash claims rate, while B.C. had about 1,000 claims per 100,000 population. Whiplash is a growth industry in B.C.
Clearly, whiplash is not a medical disorder, but rather is owned and abetted by injury lawyers.
We as a society have a serious medical problem with so-called chronic whiplash, for the lawyer-represented claimant suffers from a moral hazard whereby to recover from the whiplash will drastically reduce their opportunity for financial gain, and the lawyer’s cut as well.
This might sound cynical, but for the injury lawyer, whiplash is the golden goose. From the health perspective, many doctors feel very frustrated by the litigating patient with whiplash, and have often been heard to tell their patient, “Come back and see me when you’ve finished your claim, maybe I can help you then.”
This should not have to be the case. Whiplash is like any other soft tissue sprain; treated aggressively and early, the outcomes are like the typical ankle sprain — it recovers fully.
Leave it alone by “taking it easy”and waiting for a claim to be fulfilled fulfils the disuse syndrome with associated muscle atrophy and joint adhesions — thought by some to be whiplash, but it is not.
We no longer treat our sprains by rest, ice, compression and elevation (RICE); we treat them with active use and exercise — this applies to whiplash as well.
A good whiplash lawyer will tell his client, “I’m not here to cure your injury, I’m here only to make you money.” For some injury patients, money is well deserved. For many, the chance for financial gain — the litigation system — is a chance to subconsciously magnify the whiplash symptoms, which after a while can be wholly believed by the patient.
This is called somatization and was previously referred to as hypochondriasis. They truly do believe that they can never be cured.
Litigation for whiplash and soft tissue injury claims is a sick syndrome. It pays well and spreads money widely throughout society, but does not make injured patients healthy and probably makes then worse.
The meat counter approach, with so much paid for a broken limb and more for a lost eye etc., would cost society much less, with the savings going towards a comprehensive-care model. This would be a win-win for everyone except the soft-tissue injury lawyers. Oh well.
Dr. Murray Allen, Kelowna Editor’s note: Dr. Allen . practices in Kelowna. He was associate professor of kinesiology at Simon Fraser University (now retired) and ran a consulting medical practice in musculoskeletal sports medical injuries. He was key author of the Whiplash Initiative, which was the first World Congress on Whiplash in Vancouver 1999. Allen has published widely in scientific journals and spoke at numerous conferences internationally on the topic of whiplash.