Missile Man

Looking for some helpful comments on this please:

In 1998 I started working for a company that supplied me with a company car. I did not have any choice over the make and model, everyone got the same vehicle whether they liked it or not. The job involved travelling around 20,000 miles a year on business.

I found the car uncomfortable to drive, and started getting some pain in my left knee. I consulted my GP in January 1999 who advised changing the car, and said there was little that could be done to correct the problem. The company supplied me with an automatic version of the same vehicle but it was still uncomfortable. I resigned in February 2000 for other reasons.

I have lived with the knee pain since then, but it has got worse in the last few weeks.

Went to the doctors today, who has given me some anti-inflammatory tablets, and said it was obvious from the muscle structure that I've had the injury for some time. He also said that surgical treatment for this particular problem (patella pain) was difficult and not always successful.

Now I don't want to be money-grabbing, but should I claim for the injury against my former employer? I understand the problem is now unlikely to go away (the tablets should help with the symptoms), and if I do need surgery in the future I will suffer loss of earnings (self employed).

What do the jury think?

V45DSM

Isn't there a 3-year limit on claims?

*Sonic*

What a top idea

Go to Claims Direct, lodge your claim, win your case, get awarded your money, actually this goes to claims direct, they take out their fee (due to a change in the law that if you win, you cant make the 3rd party pay your fees or summit like that)

Realise that their fee is more than your compensation, let it go to a debt collector, dont pay a penny, and let the interest build up & up, while they keep sending you demanding letters for payment

Oh im not bitter

currently sat at owing them 380 quid and going up every day with interest

What a great system - NOT

Spoon

Unbefúckinglievable!!

Money grabbing waster in my opinion.

Brendan Hughes

I think they were reasonable enough in giving you an automatic when you asked for it. I don't see how it could continue to give your left knee problems after that.

From what you've said so far, your claim doesn't sound very strong.

scoobydooooo

i agree with spoon , as in wait until someone claims against you about an incident from three years ago and then see how you would react !!

mj

If I was your previous boss, I would be asking why you did not complain about the painful knee even when you had been given the auto.
As far as your former employer is concerened they addressed your problem by supplying the auto car and then heard no more about it, sureley you would have to have something on paper to say the car was causing discomfort.

2p,

mj.

ProperCharlie

1)Hopefully you will be out of time due to the three year limit.

2)If you do claim i hope you fall over and break the other knee.

sorry if that's not very helpful, but these sort of injury claims really p*ss me off. Maybe one day you'll want to start a business but won't be able to due to the cost of employers liability insurance.

NACRO

I complained about a similar co. car situation I was in at the time and was taken out of a crappy Vectra and put into a top spec Audi A4. The company even let me pick from a bunch of other vehicles until I found one that was "suitable". Backed up with doctors reports and my reputation as someone who doesn't take no for answer they had no other choice.

The moral of the story is that it's probably too late to do anything now.

T.C

Time limitation is 3 years from date of injury or date of knowledge whichever is the soonest unless you are a juvenile or a person incapable of handling their own affairs in which case the time limitation rules do not apply.

So, if the pain started in 1999, that would also be classed as date of knowledge (even though the pain has got worse since then), I am afraid you have run out of time.

By the way Claims Direct went bust 18 months ago whilst The Accident Group (TAG) followed behind last year, and there are a couple more accident management/claims firms gone under just recently.

Missile Man

Thank you to those people who have posted balanced and well thought out replies.

Perhaps I did not make myself clear:

There was no suggestion that the type of transmission caused, or would rectify, the knee problem. The company supplied an automatic, which was a step in the right direction but not what I had asked for. I had simply requested more flexibility on the company car policy, so that I could change to a vehicle that was more suitable (not just an automatic version of the same car) given the medical evidence that was presented to my employer at the time.

I drew to my boss's attention that the problem was still there, despite the change of car, and in his exact words (you tend to remember these things) "If you don't like it you can f*ck off".

With hindsight I realise I should not have just accepted the situation, but the fact is, I did. Therefore I guess I have answered my own question really.

As regards "false" injury claims, this would certainly annoy me if I was on the receiving end. But in this instance, my health has suffered and I am very likely to lose out financially due to the arrogant attitude of my former employer.

It would be a sad world if people could cause injury to others, even admit that they have done so by virtue of their actions, and then not be held responsible for it.

By the way, for anyone who gives a ****, I have just lost my job due to redundancy, what a great time of year for that to happen. Still, at least it gives me time to put my feet up and let my knee recover. Or maybe, just maybe, I will get up off my ar$e and find a new job - because I have a family, I have bills to pay and I am not a freeloader.

Finally, I am very disappointed that some people felt it necessary to post inappropriate personal insults.

V45DSM

LOL. You ****en tw@t.

[Edited by V45DSM - 12/18/2003 2:59:36 PM]

mj

Take no notice, the trouble is that there is so much of this bogus claiming going on that people tend to get tarred with the same brush.

I hate the whole fckin false claims/money grabbing thing - these people are arseholes for doing it, they forget that their actions drive prices up across the board and probably make it harder for the genuine cases.

*Sonic*

T.C

I know Claims Direct went bust still they f00ked up my claim, and I still owe money, despite winning my case beyond a shadow of a doubt, I refuse to pay it, but I still get letters showing the added interest since the last time I refused to pay up

I know about TAG too, as I put 8 Racks in their server room, and filled it with servers for them

T.C

Sonic, you are not the only person Claims Direct and TAG upset, the list runs into thousands.

The trouble is that being unregulated, they put people onto No Win, No fee arrangements and failed to advise them that the claimant may lose part of their compensation in order to cover their fees, so often claimants despite winning still ended up out of pocket.

Then of course there was the problem of the ficticious claims that they introduced, so what happened was that all of us in the legal profession who specialise in personal injury claims got tarred with the same brush.

Whereas with a regulated law firm, under a proper No Win, No Fee (or Conditional fee agreement to give it its proper name) the claimant gets to keep 100% of their compensation, and if you lose you don't get lumbered with a big legal bill.

These days with all the risk assesments that have to be carried out together with money laundering checks that have to be done, it is actually quite difficult to get a ficticious claim past the screening stage, but unfortunately the regulations did not change until after Claims Direct and TAG had done their damage!

*Sonic*

I know TC, TAG never upset me tho, they gave us a 1.5 million pound order, which we get paid too

since my dealings with Claims Direct, I have spent the last two years working in a lot of Solicitors who do PI amongst other things, and found out all what you have said above

Bit of a thread hijack here, but the finance company sill believe I owe them money, and keep adding interest daily, my solictor has closed the case, and they obviously cant get the money from Claims Direct, do they actually have any rights to come after me for the money?

T.C

Are the finance company saying that you owe them money for the CFA premium?

If so, then whether you are liable or not depends on the terms of the contract you had with Claims Direct. It really is an issue you should take up with the solicitor who was appointed by CD and who represented you, as they can't simply wash their hands of the matter just because the file has been closed.

*Sonic*

Yep, Deloit & Touche where handling all finance after CD demise, and they 'sold' the debt to First National (IIRC) then they got bought out (again IIRC) by First Litigation

First Litigation are the ones saying I owe them money, as they originally wrote to the Solicitors appoint by CD, who promptly told them where to go, and that they should deal with me direct

My appointed Solicitors then wrote to me stating that 'they' have closed my case as it is now over 3 years old, personally I think the finance company are trying it on, and tbh I havent heard anything for quite a while now

T.C

If it persists, it may be worth seeing if you have a claim against the solicitor that represented you. The cost of the premium should have been included in the costs of the disbursments and legal fees which the defence should have paid. If tis wasn't done, then there may be a negligence claim.

At the end of the day, if you have won your case, you should be entitled to keep 100% of your compensation. Unfortuantely it is another sorry idictment of many of the solicitors who work for accident management firms, and not the first time I have heard such stories.