Insurance litigation associate, Rehana Ahmed, successfully saved our insurer client over £60,000 in a case brought about by passengers, including two minors, involved in a previously settled collision case.
Following a liability claim involving two drivers which had previously settled on a 50/50 liability basis, Rehana Ahmed picked up the investigation of the claims from the passengers which raised phantom and exaggeration concerns.
The passengers involved in the road traffic accident (RTA) waited until the driver's modest injury claim was settled before obtaining medical evidence and submitting their own claim for compensation.
Their claims were hugely exaggerated with 2-3 year prognosis periods, in addition to claims for psychological injuries and this raised suspicion with Rehana, who then embraced the major task of getting the case to the position whereby the claimants discontinued their claim against our insurer client and their policyholder.
Upon dissecting the evidence and vast quantities of medical records provided by the claimants, Rehana personally attended a hearing where she was successful in having the psychological evidence struck out, with costs for our client.
All associated medical expert's fees were also debarred. Rehana then put Part 35 Questions to the medical experts, who all substantially reduced their prognosis periods as a result.
The claimants' driver's insurer was also party to proceedings, and they were represented by a very reputable firm. Rehana kept in close contact with the handler at this firm to align their strategies and concerns, as Rehana was sure these claims could be defeated at trial.
Until a couple of weeks prior to the settlement of this case, the claimants' solicitor insisted that they were looking for a settlement of between £5,000-£10,000 per claimant. However, shortly before trial, the claimants managed to obtain settlement of £1,000 each from their driver's insurer, on the basis that they would discontinue against our client. The representative for the claimants' driver's insurer felt that this was a commercially good settlement for them as they did not want to risk the costs of trial.
However, the solicitor for the other insurer was very complimentary about Rehana's work on the case and stated that "If it had not been for Rehana's work, they would have had to settle the claims for the full value of 2-3 years prognosis each with psychological damage on top". He also stated that he had passed the documents Rehana had drafted on the case to his seniors to use as precedents at their own firm. He especially commented that "It is very difficult to defeat minor claims and so Rehana's efforts have led to them paying nominal damages also and so it is a huge saving for their insurer client also".
Rehana comments on the case:
"Achieving a total saving of £60,826.04 is an excellent result under the circumstances, considering that the lead claim of the two drivers previously settled at 50/50 on liability, technically meaning that our insurer client should have expected to pay 50% of the damages and costs for all three claimants. Instead, they walk away with three discontinuances."
For more information about this case, or how our Insurance Litigation team defends insurers and self-insured organisations against credit hire claims, please contact us on 01332 226 109 or complete the form below.
The case details the work our Insurance Litigation team carried out for one of our insurer clients, who was facing a pleaded schedule of loss over £2m.