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Richard, the Claimant body constantly accuses insurers of picking figures from the air, but you do exactly that.

Where on earth do you get that figure of 1% from ?

Let's just park for a moment the issue of what can be proved/disproved, the economics of fighting these claims etc. Instead, just look at the stats, which tells us that in the last 10 or so years, broadly 10% of the population of England and Wales have made a whiplash claim.

So, it follows that on average, around one in ten people we all know should have suffered from a whiplash injury in a RTA. Maybe one in nine, or one in eleven, but it is in that ball park. Whiplash does not recognise social class or wealth - we are all equally vulnerable to it in theory.

I have met hundreds of people in the last 10 years, both work related and otherwise, and addressed literally hundreds more on this very subject at a variety of conferences, seminars etc. In that time, I have probably asked 2,000+ people simply whether they have ever sustained a whiplash injury in a RTA (always one of my first questions in conference environments). On the basis of pure stats, around 200+ should have done but do you know what....I've probably had three people in all that time tell me that they have indeed suffered in this way. None had anything to gain or lose by not saying they had - the question is deliberately not whether a claim was made, but instead just whether they have ever sustained whiplash injury.

So, how can that possibly work ? Even allowing for a few deciding not to admit it for whatever reason, the difference in the numbers is irreconcilable.

And before anyone responds with tales of genuine injury, which of course can and does happen and so people responding with dozens of genuine stories doesn't assist the debate, just ask yourself - of the people you've met in the last 10 years, excluding of course clients claiming it, is the % of them that have sustained a whiplash injury is anywhere even remotely close to the 10% or so that the stats suggest ? I doubt it.

In theory, we should all know of many people who truly have suffered from whiplash - but I just can't find any that have !

But what you will find if you talk to people is a great many who have been involved in very trivial incidents and seen claims made against them - many times more of those types than those who have genuinely suffered from this type of injury.

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