Whiplash claimants need undeniable evidence: James Dalton

Whiplash claimants should not get compensation for pain and suffering unless there is objective evidence that they have been injured, according to ABI head of motor and liability James Dalton at a whiplash conference today.

Dalton said the ABI also wants further reforms to cut the rising number and cost of whiplash claims in the UK.

These are:

  • Capping or reducing the level of damages for whiplash claims;
  • Having a panel of independent doctors to assess whiplash claims, rather than the claimants GP;
  • Greater use of bio-mechanical evidence that could introduce a speed threshold under which whiplash would be unlikely to happen.

Dalton said: “If whiplash was an Olympic sport, the UK would be gold medallists. The fact that whiplash is virtually impossible to disprove means that for too many it has become the fraud of choice, often aided and abetted by ambulance-chasing lawyers and claims management firms.”

The ABI has estimated that Britain’s whiplash industry has increased the price of an average motor policy by 20%.

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