Motor insurers can relax. The claims farmers have moved on. The hot new ticket for the ambulance chasing fraternity is… holiday tummy. That’s according to leading insurance publication Pose Magazine.
Has the silly season come early? Has April fools come late? Or is all part of the UK’s ongoing attempt to reduce itself to the status of International Laughing Stock.
Actually this story’s genuine and has been around for a while, but who could resist delving once again into a story where law firm Bot & Co crops up in the context of a deluge of travel insurance claims for gastric affliction.
Especially when Pout Magazine recently reported that dodgy tummy claims are up 500% over the past four years, warning that the UK legal system is soft on diarrhoea claims and soft on the causes of diarrhoea claims.
‘This kind of claim would not occur in Europe,’ chuckled some foreigner patronisingly.
The good news, for motor insurers at least, is that all the effort that went into the RTA portal could now be paying off, restricting the flow of whiplash claims to the point where many dodgy claimant lawyers are hauling ass to do their business elsewhere.
Any impartial witness would have to say that something stinks when, according to Sarah Hill, head of fraud at solicitors BUM, nine out of 10 personal injury claims lodged by Brits who holiday abroad are uncorroborated illness claims, often presented up to a year after a holiday took place.
A spate of claimant firms pouring into the holiday tummy arena appear to have been spooked by rumblings suggesting the bottom will finally fall out of motor PI claims if the Prison and Courts Bill passes into law (admittedly, still perhaps a biggish if, see separate story).
Plugging the gushing gastric upset claims pipeline may yet require some kind of cap on payouts or more invasive medical evidence gathering. Whatever the solution, the rising tide of Delhi belly claims certainly leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
The bottom line is something must be done!
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