Cameron sides with insurance companies over injury claims

Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to tackle rising insurance premium costs, not by questioning the profits of the multi-million insurance business in the UK, but by introducing a number of measures aimed at reducing the number of claims insurance companies might actually have to pay out on.

Mr Cameron has zeroed in on whiplash claims with ‘battlefield- like’ rhetoric, pledging to protect large companies from having to deal with large amounts of compensation claims. He is considering a raft of measures that would primarily prejudice motorists, including in-car monitoring of young motorists, as well as the setting of a minimum speed which would prevent a claim for whiplash regardless of any injury the victim might have sustained.

The Law Society of England and Wales has criticised the government for failing to take up their offer to work with them on addressing concerns over whiplash claims, with chief executive Desmond Hudson accusing the government of “limiting itself to tea and cakes with one partisan set of stakeholders - the insurers.”

Lyn Harris, a claims solicitor specialising in road traffic accidents and other personal injury claims at Wilson Nesbitt in Belfast commented:

"The government should exercise caution with the language it uses when discussing road traffic accident claims. Many people are genuinely injured as a result of an accident, have reduced capacity in their day-to-day lives, and rely on compensation to pay medical bills and to meet the cost of living in light of reduced function. Some of the comments being made are at risk of painting all claimants as deceitful, or certainly don't acknowledge the role and purpose of insurance when a genuine injury is sustained. Motorists pay large insurance premiums each year, and should not be victimised if the occasion arises that they genuinely need to make a claim for compensation."

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