22/12/2010
Car insurance company LV= has revealed 60 per cent of doctors have reported a rise in patients exaggerating injuries to try to claim compensation over the past two years. Peter Hodson of GCN, a specialist in personal injury and occupational diseases was interviewed for LexisWeb.co.uk (published 22.12.10) about the issues these findings raise for practitioners.
Extracts from the article as follows:
Peter Hodson says: “PI practitioners rely on the medical evidence to identify the nature and extent of any alleged injury. We must scrutinise carefully the medical evidence in comparison to our instructions to identify inconsistencies and consider inviting the medical experts to comment on those inconsistencies, if comment would assist in clarifying matters. When instructing experts we must be careful to ensure experts with proper expertise are instructed.”
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Hodson agrees with APIL’s suggestion “that insurers could assist by alerting the legal profession about current developments, perhaps patterns or trends where the potential for fraud arises so that lawyers can be properly prepared when dealing with their clients.” He adds: “Good medical experts will state where they suspect fraud or exaggeration and they should be supported when they do so.”
> 22.12.10 - Personal Injury Claims - Increasingly Exaggerated? (published on LexisWeb.co.uk) - link to full article