Can I Claim for my Injuries?

Q.

My car was in the fast lane on the M1 in leicestershire. The car two cars in front - with no warning stopped dead! No reasons or witnesses seeing anything.

The car in front plus the middle car told me and my passenger to "go - just go" but we stayed to see if all were ok - they were. They didn't want insurance details or to report it. Then I hear that the middle car had claimed against me.

The police said that it was a scam - but my passenger and I both got whiplash and I have a trapezius rip in my left side. What can I do?

A.

There are a number of car accident scams in existence and many people are victim to these without even realising at the time. It isn't until much later when they hear that they've had a claim made against them that they realise that something just isn't quite right with the collision they were involved in. At this stage, it is often too late to do much about it, as generally there will have been no witnesses and little interaction between the driver and the scammer. In this instance, although it's impossible to say whether there was definitely a scam taking place, it does sound as though you may be a victim of an organised collision. Due to this, there are a few options that can be taken to try and ensure that you are not out of pocket.

The first task you must do is to speak to your insurers. You need to find out from them if you have any kind of legal expenses cover. You can use this to make a claim yourself and if you have it, they'll be able to inform you on the details of it. You must make it known to your insurers that you believe the incident you were involved in was part of a scam. They will be aware of these types of issues and will no doubt have dealt with them before.

In order to help your claim, you should pass on the information about the police also believing that you were involved in a hit and run scam. They will know of numerous bogus claims scams and will generally have a fairly set process arranged in how to deal with these.

Due to your claim that you have suffered an injury in this collision, there's a very good chance that you are able to make some kind of counter claim. Your insurers will be able to advise you on this. What you need to be very careful of is that the middle car driver who is claiming against you doesn't call on the front car driver as a witness.

If you can, write down all the details of the incident as you recall them and get your passenger to do the same separately. Make sure that you keep this information and give a copy to your lawyers. You have a witness in the form of your passenger and with you both claiming, it could make a big difference to the overall result.