What we know:

« back to Spark

Credibility is the key as suspect claim defeated

In a recent case, Chris Henson of Keoghs’ Liability Fraud team worked with Helen Barker at RBS Insurance Home - Technical and Large Loss Team to ensure that a claimant’s suspect personal injury case was struck out, saving the insurer £265k.

The claimant was an odd job man who agreed to erect his neighbour’s Christmas lights. The claimant subsequently fell off the defendant’s roof and sustained severe orthopaedic and alleged psychological injuries.

The defendant’s version of events was that he was footing the ladders when he heard the claimant begin to fall from the top of the roof and so positioned himself to catch the claimant and lessen the impact.

The claimant presented three different versions of events.  He initially alleged that the defendant was not footing the ladder when he started his descent before then signing a statement of truth confirming that he was actually on the apex of the roof rather than any ladders when he started to fall and he did not know where the defendant was (and he produced an “anonymous” witness statement supporting the allegation that the defendant was not present). 

By the time the claimant litigated, his case was that the defendant was actually helping him carry a second set of ladders down from the roof!

Keoghs were able to attack the credibility of both the claimant and his case by gathering several pieces of key evidence, including: 

• Ambulance records and A&E entries which both made reference to the claimant’s fall having been broken when he was caught by a neighbour
• A statement from the “anonymous” witness saying she had not provided the alleged witness statement and denying any direct knowledge of the incident
• Surveillance showing the claimant continuing to work despite his allegations that he was unfit to do so
• Intelligence that the claimant had a criminal history

The weight of this evidence enabled a defence to be entered pleading fraud, vigorously and systematically deconstructing the claimant’s allegations.  Upon service of the defence, the claimant’s funders immediately withdrew from the claim.  The claimant then continued to instruct his solicitors on a private paying basis and failed to comply with an Unless Order for service of his Allocation Questionnaire and payment of the relevant fee, leading to his case being struck out. 

Keoghs are currently recovering £18,000 in costs from the claimant.