Personal injury news roundup: 7 days ended 7 Oct 2014:
Personal injury solicitors try their hardest to get money in the hands of those that need it most, but sometimes access to justice is hard to come by.
It’s not anything that injury lawyers are responsible for; quite the opposite in fact. Most lawyers will tirelessly campaign for greater access to justice instead of having it curtailed. Still, sometimes insurance companies – which have the kinds of deep pockets that can help you sway Government ministers or MPs – campaign just as hard for more constraints to be put on people looking to make accident claims… and sometimes they win.
However, the fight is being taken up by more than just lawyers; major organisations are speaking out against insurers and the steps they take to not pay out on personal injury compensation claims. One such organisation, Motorcycle Law Scotland, has been speaking out long and hard against insurers’ plans to make it harder for people with whiplash claims to come forward – and the group’s founder, Brenda Mitchell, has said she’s had enough. Insurers are treating the injured inhumanely, Mitchell said, and this goes doubly so for people suffering from whiplash.
I’m not going to say that fraudulent claims aren’t problematic – they are, to be sure – but in their zeal to weed out scammers, insurers are trodding upon the rights of legitimately injured Brits that need help. Of course there’s more going on than just insurers being stingy – the Government has been playing hard to get with injured soldiers for years now, and one former Army corporal has had enough: he’s so upset at being denied compensation for the injuries he sustained in a suicide bombing that he actually gave back his Armed Forces Veterans Badge. Can you imagine? A decorated soldier who suffered for his country, and the Government can’t get its act together enough to help the poor bloke out? If you ask me, that’s just bloody unconscionable.
Making matters worse is the fact that the man is also suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and has been since the explosion he was caught in. That incident was in 2006 – yet the Army’s medical staff didn’t diagnose him properly with PTSD until 2012. For those of you keeping score at home that’s six long years the former corporal had to go without any sort of support – all because the Army couldn’t get its act together!