It is increasingly common for motor insurers to attack road accident compensation claims as fundamentally dishonest. However, a High Court case in which a young woman was awarded seven-figure damages underlined the great care with which judges scrutinise such serious allegations.
The woman was driving on a motorway when another vehicle ran into the back of her car at high speed. She launched a damages claim against motor insurers who admitted liability for the accident. They asserted, however, that her claim should be rejected in its entirety on the basis that she had deliberately acted in a fundamentally dishonest way to maximise her compensation.
Roundly rejecting that accusation following an eight-day trial, the Court described her as an honest, helpful, impressive and dignified witness. It found that she sustained a traumatic brain injury in the collision that was the root cause of the constellation of disabling symptoms she has suffered ever since. They include chronic pain, debilitating migraines, hypersensitivity to light and sound, psychiatric issues and post-traumatic stress disorder. Given the severe impact that the accident had on many aspects of her life, the Court awarded her £1,679,406 in damages.