Another bizarre injury award from an Irish judge

ThisRegard

Guy claims he's pretty much crippled, was videoed on more than one occasion appearing to be fine compared to the act he put on for doctors, including being on RTE's the voice, judge agrees that his evidence was exagerated and misleading.

Ah but it'll be an injustice and harsh not to give him an award because of psychiatric condition he has anyway.

Mr Justice Raymond Groarke, rejecting an application to throw out John McCormack’s personal injuries claim, felt he would be doing an injustice to McCormack because of a psychiatric history.

I have to keep in mind that, despite Mr McCormack having failed to attend doctors for little or no medical treatment, the court is dealing with someone who has a psychiatric condition

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/singer-who-gave-false-and-misleading-evidence-awarded-18k-over-traffic-incident-35716504.html

Gravelly

Thought that was a very strange decision alright. It basically says "try a scam, even if you're caught, you'll still get paid"

coylemj

His 'fourth visit to the well of compensation' meaning he is a serial compo merchant. The poor guy has such bad luck!

Moral of the story - you have nothing to lose by telling lies to doctors and/or refusing to be examined by them.

dr.fuzzenstein

It has often been said that compo claims have nothing whatsoever to do with skyrocketing insurance and that much lower payouts in other countries cannot be taken as a reason insurance is cheaper there.
I just insured a 12 year old 2 liter diesel Cmax for €700 in Germany and that is currently based on zero no claims bonus, because the paperwork from my Irish insurance hasn't come through yet. After that my insurance premium will be around €350.
Oh and tax is around €300. Ireland is such an appalling rip-off country. I make less money after tax here but have more left over at the end of the month.
But of course none of that proves anything, the same insurance companies that are supplying me with completely sensible quotes here turn into crazy rip-off merchants once they enter the Irish market, yeah, of course, that's the explanation, it has to be.
Also, the argument is always "well, I've added up all the court payouts and divided it by the number of insurance policies", but of course a lot of " claims" are settled quietly outside of the courts, because paying €20k without arguing is cheaper than going to court and still end up paying €20k plus €40k legal fees. Of course insurance companies keep shtum about how much money they're loosing on this, so it's hard to gauge. However a lot of people argue "because we don't know the figure, I will ignore it", which is idiotic.
How often have we heard now that courts have paid out despite evidence that the injury was exaggerated or even fake?
Oh god, I think I hear Special Circumstances gear up...

Marcusm

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

It has often been said that compo claims have nothing whatsoever to do with skyrocketing insurance and that much lower payouts in other countries cannot be taken as a reason insurance is cheaper there.
I just insured a 12 year old 2 liter diesel Cmax for €700 in Germany and that is currently based on zero no claims bonus, because the paperwork from my Irish insurance hasn't come through yet. After that my insurance premium will be around €350.
Oh and tax is around €300. Ireland is such an appalling rip-off country. I make less money after tax here but have more left over at the end of the month.
But of course none of that proves anything, the same insurance companies that are supplying me with completely sensible quotes here turn into crazy rip-off merchants once they enter the Irish market, yeah, of course, that's the explanation, it has to be.
Also, the argument is always "well, I've added up all the court payouts and divided it by the number of insurance policies", but of course a lot of " claims" are settled quietly outside of the courts, because paying €20k without arguing is cheaper than going to court and still end up paying €20k plus €40k legal fees. Of course insurance companies keep shtum about how much money they're loosing on this, so it's hard to gauge. However a lot of people argue "because we don't know the figure, I will ignore it", which is idiotic.
How often have we heard now that courts have paid out despite evidence that the injury was exaggerated or even fake?
Oh god, I think I hear Special Circumstances gear up...

In fitness, while individual settlements are not reported, each insurer reports to the Central Bank across all insurance lines and these are then published in what used to be called the Blue Book. This sets out the underwriting result for motor insurance for each insurer setting out the premiums earned, claims incurred, expenses and investment income/gains. The large losses of the past 10 years or so are fairly evident. I'm no shill for the insurers but it's fairly clear where the money is going and it's not on admin expenses or profits, it's claims. Whether the claims are adequately defended or settled is a different matter.

corks finest

Gravelly wrote: »

Thought that was a very strange decision alright. It basically says "try a scam, even if you're caught, you'll still get paid"

Fuc+ing disgrace

ironclaw

I think people need to see this as a monopoly business which we are all paying for, insurance companies are just the most visible and hence scapegoated entity. Firstly, you have to have insurance and you have to buy it from an Irish company, hence a captive market and you can charge what you like. Zero competition, the perfect market place for any business. You then have the claims which have to be wrangled and rubber stamped by a swathe of legal individuals, all of whom are on a winner because they'll get paid no matter what. Lose the claim? You'll probably have got some money off your client to even take the case. Win? You'll get your costs or you'll submit a bill to your client. As an insurance company, do you mount an expensive defense or do you take the cheaper option of just paying out? Again, winner winner chicken dinner all round for money.

Ultimately, we all pay the bill. Reform is needed in both the market place and ultimately how these claims are processed.

hi5

Lots of young people are not learning to drive anymore and a lot has to do with high insurance costs.
The insurance companies are shooting themselves in the foot.

It's also bad for the government who make nearly 6 billion euros a year in motoring taxes, not only will they lose the taxes from a lack of new driver entrants but they will also have to fork out extra in public transport instead.

The number of young people aged 17-20 with full licences peaked at more than 52,000 in 2008, before steadily dropping to 32,143 in 2014.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer/high-insurance-costs-blamed-for-drop-in-young-drivers-1.3042942

ironclaw

hi5 wrote: »

The number of young people aged 17-20 with full licences peaked at more than 52,000 in 2008, before steadily dropping to 32,143 in 2014.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/consumer/high-insurance-costs-blamed-for-drop-in-young-drivers-1.3042942

Did anyone notice the massive immigration in that age bracket coupled with the worse financial crisis in recent times? Seems like a clutching at straws cop out.