Certainly not - never forgiven them for supporting the Fascists in the 1930's
So much for a 'myth' is that why we're constantly bombarded by their adverts on TV?
Until advertising was permitted, the only people who knew they could claim for injuries were those who knew a solicitor through the golf club or lodge, or who were in a union. I've not forgotten that in the 1980s I gave a ride to a hitchhiker who told me about his motorbike accident, caused by two motorists having a race. He spent some time in intensive care and lost a year's income. He said the insurers for the offending driver paid up for his written off bike very quickly. No-one told him he could claim for his injuries or lost income. Fortunately he was just within the three year limitation period.
Advertising has changed this, though still only about 70% of those entitled to claim do so.
Yes, there are spurious attempts to claim. We try to weed them out. I don't enjoy spending a lot of time and effort on a claim that I'm not going to win. I need a better than evens chance. And yes, some people who have suffered a genuine injury exaggerate their symptoms, just as some victims of burglaries exaggerate their losses. The doctors try to spot these.
The majority of the adverts you see on telly, and all the cold calls, are from "claims management companies" who try to find claimants and then sell their details to the likes of me. Since April, that's calmed down as we're no longer allowed to pay for cases. I'm pleased about that, as it led to the growth of a parasite industry that will hopefully now die. But I'm also pleased that many more people know that they can have recompense for injury and the loss that goes with it. And solicitors will need to continue advertising, as they day of the family solicitor has gone, and we're fighting each other for work. Blame the consumer lobby for this. We didn't want it.
Unfortunately the insurance companies have deep pockets to pay for disinformation to be fed to the media, and they have MPs, including ministers, in their pockets. You can't have missed all that is being printed about whiplash claims at the moment. And yet you'll know, if anyone has ever driven into the back of your car, how debilitating a pain in the neck can be , whether it lasts for a month or a year.
And don't expect the insurance companies to act fairly in settling your claim if you don't have any knowledge of the correct level of damages, and all that you're entitled to claim for.
Finally, the law relating to injury claims hasn't changed significantly since I started in the game in the 70s. A claimant still has to prove that the defendant was negligent or in breach of a duty toward him, and prove the damage he suffered as a result. The silly cases you read about in the yellow press are fliers, planted for the publicity and quietly dropped a little way down the line.
JMB, I may have defamed you by suggesting you were a Mail reader. That's certainly something that could cause right thinking members of society to hold you in ridicule, hatred or contempt. I get my apology in now, before you dash off to see a solicitor.
End of overlong, off-topic rant.
though Chimenea's do and so technically speaking should not emit more than ten minutes of black smoke in every hour when you set fire to the stuff you are trying to cook.
