Minor accident and whiplash

[Howard]

Some of you may recall I mentioned a couple of weeks back a fairly minor incident I was involved in (I wasn't driving).

Basically after a slight loss of concentration, whilst turning right into a side road, pulled into the path of a car coming from the other direction.

He swerved, and we struck him, about half way along his car, scraping his front and rear door, and the bottom part of the rear quarter panel. Our car needed a new bumper, o/s light cluster and o/s wing.

Nobody was hurt, as it wasn't a head on collision (would have been had he not swerved). The other guy seemed fairly amicable about the whole thing, we swapped details, notified our insurance (our car was collected for repair the next day) and the guy rang up when we got home to make sure we were OK, sorting stuff out etc.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago and we receive a letter from his laywer saying he wishes to claim for whiplash..

Now come on, we scraped him. It was in no way a forceful shunt which could have induced whiplash, he even said he was not hurt...
Is he pulling a fast one? It's fairly common I hear

Is there anything that can be done? Is there anything we have to do, or will the insurance ompany sort it? Is he likely to be successfull, and what are the implications?


Hoping someone knowledgable in this field can offer some info


cheers


Edit: I even have pictures of the damage to both cars if anyone wants to see (and I'm OK to distribute them?)

[Funkstar]

Considering the problems a friend of mine has had getting legitimate compensation after an accident, even if he is trying it on, it won't be easy for him to actually get a settlement.

[redlight]

I had an accident like that a year or so ago.
Not my fault but I got a letter from his solicitor claiming whiplash.
I just told them to b****r off and pointed them to my insurance company and to this day have never heard a word from them or my insurance company.

[manwithnoname]

He may not be lying about the whiplash. I was in a stationary car that was hit from behind. I was o.k. at the time just a little surprised. Roll on 3 days I wake up I cannot lift my head because my neck is so sore. I couldn't be bothered calming, but the two other people in the car did claim.

If you were hoping to pay for the repair without claiming on the insurance don't bother now - the 2 passengers above got 1K a piece. You will be covered on your insurance, forward any correspondence you have to your insurance company they will sort it out.

[Nemeliza]

It is actually very easy to cause whiplash and as noname said, forward the letter to your ins company and they will handle it.

[frazered]

i had ploughed into someone after they pulled out on me - no fault of mine, i thought i was fine until i woke up 2 days after and my neck and back were siezed, it is possible the guy is telling the truth, whiplash happens after the event and is not something you notice immediately.

[Howard]

It is actually very easy to cause whiplash and as noname said, forward the letter to your ins company and they will handle it.

Yep, that's what we've done, I was just curious

[Zak33]

none the less....Whiplash is the biggest scam in the insurance world. Luckily....the insurance companies know how to deal with it.

[manwithnoname]

none the less....Whiplash is the biggest scam in the insurance world. Luckily....the insurance companies know how to deal with it.

I agrees it's simple to fake Whiplash, but if you have it, it is amazingly painful.

[GoNz0]

if you scraped cars and there was no sudden bang then he may be putting it on, just fill in your claim form and leave it to the insurance company.. the bracing up when you know your about to have a crash is enough to trigger whiplash.

[Andy3536]

If it is a legitemate claim then he will have doctors notes from the hospital he visited soon after the accident, if however the notes are a long time after (as you mentioned you didn't know until a while after) It would be resonable to assume if the injuries are genuine then he may well have sustained them in another incident. Whiplash will nearlly always appear within a few days if not staight away so if he has a large time scale between the incedent and doctor sighning his injury off then you easilly get off any accusation.

[SilentDeath]

or it might just be he thought it would go away, so didnt see a doctor. it didnt, so after a week or two he went...?

thats what id do.