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OVER 90 INDIVIDUALS who initiated legal proceedings with Aviva, seeking compensation for a personal injury claims, withdrew their cases in the last two years according to the insurance company.
New internal analysis by Aviva Insurance Ireland found a trend of some personal injury claims being withdrawn “before on or on the steps of court” which the company claim is a “huge cost to insurers, motorists, and society”.
The company has undertaken an analysis of some 800 claims over the past two years which it suspected of being fraudulent or exaggerated.
The insurance company identified that 91 claims were withdrawn before court proceedings in the years 2021 and 2022.
Senior Fraud Manager in Aviva Rob Smyth said: “The emergence of this trend is further evidence that there continues to be a cohort of individuals who are willing to fake accidents and personal injuries in the hope of receiving a generous pay-out from the courts.
“Unfortunately, these claims continue to be a major cost to the insurance industry, to our customers, and to society at large,” Smyth added.
Smyth also said today that Aviva “had a further 70 suspected fraudulent claims that were dismissed by the courts. Defending these cases cost the company in the region of €2 million.”
The company said that the investment by Aviva and other insurance companies to investigate and dispute these claims is having “some positive impact” due to the trend highlighted by their analysis today.
The Alliance for Insurance Reform called on the government last year to do more to tackle the premiums as new guidelines, introduced in 2021, made awards for personal injuries fall by 40%.
The Alliance said the reforms were “clearly not having an impact” on the liability premiums paid by businesses, voluntary and community groups and charities.
It surveyed those 954 of those organisations and found that 42% of organisations say that insurance premiums were threatening their future and 90% told them the Government was not doing enough to address the issue of insurance costs.
The Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) found that personal injuries were €118 million lower in 2021, compared to 2019, when the guidelines were introduced.
The new guidelines outlined a range of possible amounts of compensation for personal injuries of which the courts and the PIAB must consider in all cases.
However according to the 2023 mid-year Private Motor Insurance Report from the Central Bank, the average earned premium per policy decreased by 5%. The report also found that premiums have fallen by 18% since 2018, as of the first half of 2022.
Last year, the annual report found premiums fell by 17% between 2017 and 2021.
Smyth said insurance fraud remains a “burden on our customers and on society” and that the company is will continue to investigate claims they suspect are fraudulent.
“We have an experienced team of in-house investigators and have invested in fraud analytics, along with the latest automated fraud detection technology,” Smyth added.
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Why are the law firms not being investigated? Solicitors who take on these cases are a massive part of the insurance fraud problem in Ireland.
@Sally Bradshaw: most of our “indigenous population” are really to blame with the amount of “strange” claims taken.
@Martin Holohan: Yea, I for one fully trust insurance company’s
@thesaltyurchin: misunderstanding me obviously, insurance companies are no angels but neither are the “regular” claimants.
@thesaltyurchin: they are no angels but neither are the “regular” claimants
@Martin Holohan: “most of our “indigenous population” are really to blame”… er nope. Maybe you get a pass for making a point via huge exaggeration, but these chancers represent a pebble in the filed of claimants but here it is, in the “news” all the same.
@thesaltyurchin: I suspect that Martin is referring to the Traveller community. Like most racists, he doesn’t have the balls to say it straight
@Sally Bradshaw: the same law firms who happily represent known drug dealers and criminals?
Legal costs and payouts have dropped dramatically. When are we going to talk about price gouging by aviva and the rest?
Fraud is a crime, crimes are investigated by gardai. Why are Aviva not reporting that they are the victims of a crime?
91 out of (checks aviva annual report) over 2,600 paid out… that’s not a “huge amount”. It’s less than 5%. The reason for exorbitant insurance premiums is not fraud. It’s greed.
@Cathal Murphy: too much sense for this type of weather.
Solicitors and barristers should be investigated. Payouts are in their interests afterall.
I’m curious why the conclusion is that they’re fraudulent rather than that the claimant cannot afford the trial and was relying on it not being challenged. If I were an insurance company and I found that I could intimidate people using bigger legal resources, then I’d characterise it as them being scammers too, I guess.
@colin: most if not all claims taken by people are done on a no win no fee basis by solicitors. The only danger in this case to the claimants is that if the claim is fraudulent and the other side can prove that then the claimant gets stung for the other sides legal costs which is bang on as far as I’m concerned! If your prepared to commit fraud and are caught out then you should have to pay for the costs of defending that fraud.
@colin: @colin: most if not all claims taken by people are done on a no win no fee basis by solicitors. The only danger in this case to the claimants is that if the claim is fraudulent and the other side can prove that then the claimant gets stung for the other sides legal costs which is bang on as far as I’m concerned! If your prepared to commit fraud and are caught out then you should have to pay for the costs of defending that fraud.
@Martin Holohan: most if not all solicitors are dealing between each other and insurance companies. So in one case they are friends in other against each other – I can see conflict of interest here.
On top of that all insurance companies wants constant reporting from doctors – do I have to mention that were you are public patient this doesn’t exist? We can get GP’s letter – insufficient then Hospital documents – insufficient, Pain Management specialist – insufficient.
So what is sufficient? Private doctor who will see him once for 15 minutes, read all documents – that are insufficient – and then after 1000 fee will write his/her opinion?
Still far too many claims around the 20k mark being paid out by insurance companies because it’s cheaper than defending them.
Every claim should be investigated and challenged, and costs sought and enforced. It costs nothing at the moment to have a go, and usually the judge will give them something.
My husband after work related back injury in February 2019 still without nothing. And we are not talking here about back pain! He lost control in the legs, had surgery, is on pain meds and Pain Management clinic, can’t work – claiming Invalidity Pension!
Suffering mentally because of what happened, our marriage is over. So, please tell me who gets the compensation in this country ?
Dodgey Solicitors Dodgey “clients” sure why would they go before a judge coz then he/she would know what they look like … until the next claim with new identities it’s RAMPANT
When the insurance companies discuss their price gouging ..
car insurance. Highest in Europe
Health insurance .. through the roof
Perhaps there’s a window in the insurance system allowing for people bring a case to court? Prob it already exists. 10 Euro a month in case one ever has to go to court to claim.
have your say