Compensation Claims

[Lord Snot]

I've been thinking about this since my friend had a car accident. I took her to the hospital the next day when she was showing symptoms of whiplash, and a couple in the waiting room told her to claim compensation for it. They were telling her how to make out it was worse than it was, and what to tell the doctor to be referred for physio. A few days later another colleague told me her daughter had just been in a car accident and was thinking of claiming for whiplash too. These whiplash claims are driving up the price of car insurance for everybody in this country, and I would imagine in other countries too.

What is your take on compensation for personal injury?

Would you ever claim for it? If you were not really injured but could fake it to get money, would you do that?

If someone is truly injured and it was another person's fault, should they only get back their loss of earnings (e.g. for unpaid sick days, any medical bills, transport to hospital etc) or should they get an arbitrary amount for their inconvenience, pain and stress too?

I used the whiplash example but the discussion is for all types of compensation claims. Share your related stories if you have any.

 

[Blobbenstein]

claiming when you are not really injured is no different than theft.

If someone really is injured, through no fault of their own, then their compensation could be over what they have lost.....to compensate for the fact that they shouldn't have gone through the whole thing at all.

 

[Lord Snot]

Won't that figure always be arbitrary though? Who should decide how much it is, and how?

 

[AeryFairy]

I would claim for genuine injury, if I had to miss work/amassed a huge medical bill. I'd never fake it, though, or make it seem worse than it is.

 

[RabbitLuvr]

I would want reimbursement for medical expenses and time missed from work. I currently have medical insurance, but there is a large out-of-pocket amount that I feel I should be compensated for, if the injury was the fault of someone else. I want to say that I should also be compensated because I would be forced to use up all my vacation time. So, for example, if Husband and I were planning to take a vacation for our anniversary, then I suffered injury due to someone else's negligence, I would have to use my vacation time for that.* Then we couldn't go on our vacation, might be out money on bookings, etc.

I disagree with the arbitrary "pain and suffering" amounts that people try to sue for. You are right, Lord Snot, that those figures are pretty much just made up. In the US, I've heard people try to sue for huge amounts, then "settle" for less.

I would not fake an injury or fake a more severe injury for the sake of getting more money.


*It's policy at my work that if I have FMLA, I have to use my vacation time up first, then be unpaid for the remainder of the time I would need off. I can't choose to be unpaid for time off for sickness, and save the vacation time for actual vacation, random days off, etc.