Personal injury fraud

Not long ago, Twitter had a thing in which people were encouraged to say something that was obvious to people within their profession but which would be surprising to people outside it. My example from working as a barrister would be the scale of fraudulent personal injury claims - and the nature of the people involved in it.

Here is a case that exemplifies the point. Indeed, I regard it as unusual only in that the insurance company got the chance to uncover the fraud (a junior employee in a law firm sent the wrong document to the other side by mistake). The judge found both a solicitor and a doctor to be guilty of conduct which interfered with the administration of justice.

Here are some observations on the guilty men. First, Mr K, the solicitor. "When I asked him to explain this error, he said it was a mistake. When I pointed out that he appeared as comfortable and fluent advancing the first version of events as the second, he said he was "nervous". When pressed, he said that when explaining his first answer, to the effect that the email preceded the letter, he was "blagging". I confess I found it extraordinary that a solicitor, facing a contempt of court allegation, should, even for a moment, think it sensible or appropriate to attempt to "blag" his way through his evidence."

Second, Dr Z. "Dr [Z] is, as Mr Goldberg QC put it, a self-made, professional man. He is a GP with an NHS locum practice. He has also built up a highly successful one-man medico legal career. He works extremely long hours examining claimants in personal injury cases and producing reports. He allows himself just 15 minutes, in total, to conduct the examination and produce the report and is able to produce an astonishing 32 medical reports every day. Mr Goldberg QC describes his client as producing medical reports on an "industrial scale". [...] He has been able as a result to generate an income from his medico legal work of £350,000 per annum, on top of his NHS salary."

A self-described "blagger" of a lawyer and a doctor who is described by his own QC as producing medical reports on an "industrial scale". The professions at their worst.