Compo Culture

Gyalist

The problem is that many insurers settle rather than fighting these bogus claims in court as the costs are usually higher than the compensation claimed.

I had an incident in my business where a middle-class* UCD student claimed that she slipped on the stairs and hurt her back. I had everything on CCTV and was prepared to fight but when I checked the status of the case with my solicitor I was surprised to learn that the claim had been settled between the claimant's solicitor and my insurance company. Of course my Public Liability insurance premium went up the next year.



*Don't for one minute think that it's only working-class people who bring spurious claims.

PizzamanIRL

She'll be suing them when her kid gets diabetes too for giving away sugar.

BigBrownBear

Good enough for her
Out of interest how much would costs be in a case like that.....roughly

Pro Hoc Vice

BigBrownBear wrote: »

Good enough for her
Out of interest how much would costs be in a case like that.....roughly

Including VAT about €10,000 for the circuit court case. Assuming Solicitor, Barrister and expert witness.

The_Minister

It's very easy to be cynical, but remember the effect that a personal injury can have on someone's life.

If you're self employed and have to take a few weeks off work, you can quickly find yourself in dire straits.

Chronic back pain can reduce someone's enjoyment of life hugely, even if they don't play sports.

There's a balance to be struck, but most people suing have suffered some damage.

LoonyLovegood

It depends on the case. A friend is in the middle of one. She fell on tiles, broke a bone. Laid up for weeks with it. No signs, she was being careful. She wasn't going to do anything until a staff member there asked her what had happened, and told her to sue that they were a death trap.

topper75

The_Minister wrote: »

It's very easy to be cynical, but remember the effect that a personal injury can have on someone's life.

If you're self employed and have to take a few weeks off work, you can quickly find yourself in dire straits.

Chronic back pain can reduce someone's enjoyment of life hugely, even if they don't play sports.

There's a balance to be struck, but most people suing have suffered some damage.

Aye, but in recent decades this balance was not struck so well. The simple concept of 'own bloody fault' all but went AWOL in our legal system. We can only hope this tide will turn back. Could this judgement be the start?

Sgt Hartman

Delighted she got nothing. The bloody compensation culture has gotten out of hand. The nanny state Health & Safety culture that exists today is a direct consequence of it.

chicken foot

Of course there are genuine cases but in my experience they are rare! I worked directly with a Medical Examiner who assessed the individuals and determined, in his opinion, how incapacitated the injured party was. He had a way of wording his report that made it clear that the "victim" was lying/exaggerating without directly saying it. Unfortunately though, it is very hard to disprove back-pain/anxiety and all of the other non-descript aliments.

I have read about 2000 reports over the years. Last year I went through all the list and broke down the percentages based on surname. 45%, as in 900, of those 2 thousand reports were made up of people carrying three very specific surnames!! I wont say those names for fear of being assassinated but if I carried one of those names Id be afraid to travel anywhere in my People Carrier with my pregnant *wife and five children/3 children & 2 elderly parents/whatever combination is worth the most!!!

*im a girl btw!

Daqster

Thought this thread was gonna be about men who wear tea cosys for hats and have the hots for old women that play hard to get.

Daqster

Daqster wrote: »

Thought this thread was gonna be about men who wear tea cosys for hats and have the hots for old women that play hard to get.

Showing your age now.

Oh wait. So am I.

Menas

Daqster wrote: »

Thought this thread was gonna be about men who wear tea cosys for hats and have the hots for old women that play hard to get.

You have gone a bit batty son.

glass_onion

Agree with what others said,take med costs along with solicitors/lawyer fees.i can see why some people for chance their arm at times.The payouts seem to be big-

Some samples i found-
Slippery porcelain tiles unsuitable for kitchen- 70k-
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/woman-who-fractured-knee-after-slipping-on-new-tiles-wins-71k-29729070.html




Schoolboy that ran into another schoolboy and suffer facial injuries in an unsupervised yard 10k-

http://www.moloneysolicitors.ie/school-boy-awarded-e10000-damages-for-school-yard-fall.html

Bench collapsed in sauna 10k- http://www.herald.ie/news/courts/boy-16-hurt-in-sauna-awarded-10000-payout-27909142.html

Mother of a minister fell during a vist of leinster house- 30k-
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/30000-for-hanafin-mum-after-leinster-house-fall-26657826.html

Michael D Not Higgins

I thought the PIAB sorted this stuff out or is it a case of this woman not being happy with their ruling and having her day in court?

Pro Hoc Vice

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

I thought the PIAB sorted this stuff out or is it a case of this woman not being happy with their ruling and having her day in court?

more than likely the defendant rejected PIAB.

maxwell smart

Will nobody think of the children!!!!

Seriously though, What else are kids sticking their dirty fingers in? I wouldn't fancy using that sugar dispenser if I was the next customer and she hadn't got her finger stuck!

mikeym

Theres the few genuine cases out there but theres also the chancers who would sue their grannies.

Galwayguy35

When you read between the lines and the legal jargon in the article it's a kid who cut her finger, happened to me dozens of times as a kid and many others here, I guess our generation was made of sterner stuff...

enda1

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

When you read between the lines and the legal jargon in the article it's a kid who cut her finger, happened to me dozens of times as a kid and many others here, I guess our generation was made of sterner stuff...

It's actually our generation (her mother) who's pursuing the claim.

Michael D Not Higgins

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

When you read between the lines and the legal jargon in the article it's a kid who cut her finger, happened to me dozens of times as a kid and many others here, I guess our generation was made of sterner stuff...

I cut myself all the time. Cut myself on a sharp plastic packaging a few weeks ago. Cut myself the other day on the sharp edge of the sticky tape dispenser when wrapping presents. Cut my hand on a sharp edge on a Dublin Bus years ago.

Never crossed my mind to sue.

Cee-Jay-Cee

This **** has been going on for years. I was working in Dublin years ago and witnessed a mother push her child in front of a Guinness keg that had rolled down a hill after being unloaded from a truck Any way the child was knocked over and landed heavily on the kerb edge. The mother then stood screaming about her child and looking for help. I stood at the top of the street as a crowd gathered around her and the child. The truck driver came out ofthe pub and seen the crowd and went to see what happened. An ambulance and the guards arrived 5 minutes later and child and mother taken away to hospital. I then went over to the guards and told them what I had seen happen, apparently no one else seen it despite there being loads of people about. I gave the driver my name/address also. The guards came and took a statement from me a few days later and I never heard a word more about it for nearly 2 years when I got a call from a solicitor acting for Guinness. They paid for me to come down from donegal to Dublin to the high court and out me up in a hotel and sent a taxi for me on the morning of the court. I told my story and the solicitor for the woman looked for a short adjournment and cane back 2 minutes later to say they were withdrawing their case.

I got a cheque for £500IR from Guinness about 2 weeks later.

mustard_igloo

The worst is when you're walking through town and something minor happens and you hear some little scrote with all his mates shouting "CLAIM!!" No, just no.

chicken foot

Its a Job for some people unfortunately. Most of the reports I dealt with were coming directly through PIAB at the time.

A few of the reports that came from the solicitors directly would ask the medical examiner to determine the relationship between the alleged victim and the driver of the other car. Obviously they were aware it was a scam but it just couldnt be proved and of course the "victim" would deny knowing the driver!!

They would also fail to wear a seatbelt and claim that they did (in order to intensify their injuries) and they would get pissed off then when the ME would call them up on it as in theory, if you were wearing a seatbelt then you could not have hit your head off the seat in front/dashboard etc! There was actually a few occasions when we dont even think the alleged victims were in the car at the time of impact!! We had one fella claim he whacked the left hand side of his head off the car door window yet claimed he was sitting directly behind the driver, with a seatbelt on so unless you have a neck like a giraffe then there is no way you would be able to fling your head across two seats to hit the window on the opposite side in order to hurt the left side of your head!!! You would want to be up early in the morning to catch these lads!! Unfortunately though, the ME is only there to determine the extent of injuries, there should definitely be another layer of examination to catch out lies!!

The_Minister

CJC999 wrote: »

This **** has been going on for years. I was working in Dublin years ago and witnessed a mother push her child in front of a Guinness keg that had rolled down a hill after being unloaded from a truck Any way the child was knocked over and landed heavily on the kerb edge. The mother then stood screaming about her child and looking for help. I stood at the top of the street as a crowd gathered around her and the child. The truck driver came out ofthe pub and seen the crowd and went to see what happened. An ambulance and the guards arrived 5 minutes later and child and mother taken away to hospital. I then went over to the guards and told them what I had seen happen, apparently no one else seen it despite there being loads of people about. I gave the driver my name/address also. The guards came and took a statement from me a few days later and I never heard a word more about it for nearly 2 years when I got a call from a solicitor acting for Guinness. They paid for me to come down from donegal to Dublin to the high court and out me up in a hotel and sent a taxi for me on the morning of the court. I told my story and the solicitor for the woman looked for a short adjournment and cane back 2 minutes later to say they were withdrawing their case.

I got a cheque for £500IR from Guinness about 2 weeks later.

Wait.

You're saying that Guinness paid you to come to court?

cousin of mine who I stay away from if I ever bump into him tripped on his way home and hurt his knee it was only bruised a littls scrap here and there and it would go away in a few days sued the council got 30,000

just for tripping ffs

TheBody

TheBody wrote: »

I'm still waiting for my case against the publishers of The Never Ending Story, for false advertising, to come up.

just for ****s & giggles has that ever happened in real life

Pro Hoc Vice

Deleted User wrote: »

just for ****s & giggles has that ever happened in real life

Homer: All you can eat. Ha!
Hutz: Mr. Simpson, this is the most blatant case of fradulent
advertising since my suit against the film, "The Never-Ending
Story".

http://www.anvari.org/fortune/The_Simpsons/54555_homer-all-you-can-eat-ha-hutz-mr-simpson-this-is-the-most-blatant-case-of-fradulent-advertising-since-my-suit-against-the-film-the-never-ending-story.html

Hehe this one is funny http://moviecitynews.com/2011/10/stupid-lawsuit-of-the-week%E2%84%A2/

[-0-]

I was in a crash years ago. A woman was arguing with her kids in her car and she slammed into us as we were stopped at a red light. The taxi behind her said she was speeding. It turns out one of the kids wouldn't put on his seat belt and his mother was trying to get him to do so, and completely ignored the road. The engine of the car came back on top of her and her daughter in the front seat, trapping them. It was squashing their legs. They were trapped under it, roaring, freaking out. I hurt my back but adrenaline was pumping so I wanted to see if I could help in any way. I called an ambulance, and went back to find a child from the back seat out on the road. He was in a lot of pain as well, so I comforted him while trying to drown out the screams of his mother and sister. Both kids were no older than six.

I damaged my back severely and was confined to bed for months. Luckily I was top of the class in college and still managed to pass my exams. Everyone was telling me I should claim compensation but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. That family had been through enough. Remembering the story now I can still hear both of them screaming, it was brutal. I remember being back in the hospital when I could walk again and seeing the mother and daughter at the other end of the corridor in wheelchairs.

To this day I have back issues. Physical therapy helps me keep it under control. I have lots of degeneration in my spine (arthritis), but plenty of stretching and core exercises help to strengthen the area around the degeneration and I can still do day to day things.

Michael D Not Higgins

[-0-] wrote: »

I was in a crash years ago. A woman was arguing with her kids in her car and she slammed into us as we were stopped at a red light. The taxi behind her said she was speeding. It turns out one of the kids wouldn't put on his seat belt and his mother was trying to get him to do so, and completely ignored the road. The engine of the car came back on top of her and her daughter in the front seat, trapping them. It was squashing their legs. They were trapped under it, roaring, freaking out. I hurt my back but adrenaline was pumping so I wanted to see if I could help in any way. I called an ambulance, and went back to find a child from the back seat out on the road. He was in a lot of pain as well, so I comforted him while trying to drown out the screams of his mother and sister. Both kids were no older than six.

I damaged my back severely and was confined to bed for months. Luckily I was top of the class in college and still managed to pass my exams. Everyone was telling me I should claim compensation but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. That family had been through enough. Remembering the story now I can still hear both of them screaming, it was brutal. I remember being back in the hospital when I could walk again and seeing the mother and daughter at the other end of the corridor in wheelchairs.

To this day I have back issues. Physical therapy helps me keep it under control. I have lots of degeneration in my spine (arthritis), but plenty of stretching and core exercises help to strengthen the area around the degeneration and I can still do day to day things.

I hope their insurance covered your medical bills at least. That's what I'd be looking for.

Pinch Flat

http://m.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/carer-61-injured-after-falling-off-toilet-awarded-28k-30671827.html

Here's one. €28k for falling off a toilet seat. Looks happy with the outcome. Explains how my car insurance, claim free for nearly 20 years, went from €380 to €500. We're the mugs that are paying for these spongers.