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Who indeed, 12.24?

I once turned up for a pre action disclosure hearing on a tripping claim. In the run up to the hearing, the insurer wrote a letter to me setting out points they mistakenly thought would obviate the need for the hearing. My response was simply to serve a copy of my costs schedule, without directly referencing their letter.

They then wrote again, along the lines of 'Please find enclosed a copy of ours of last week, which you have clearly not received'.

Their difficulty is that I had received it, and was intrigued to note that the purported copy was a good page longer than the original, and contained a number of new points specifically designed to save themselves a costs order.

In fairness to the insurer, they did instruct a rather senior barrister to turn up at the hearing, admit that the document was a forgery created by the insurers to save them a few hundred pounds in costs, and to offer the insurer's profuse apology to the court, to me and to my client.

But, of course, according to the insurers, fraud is the sole preserve of the claimant.