If someone
you knew was left paralysed either by a driver convicted of careless driving or
a negligent doctor and then the driver or doctor complained about how much their
insurance premiums had gone up where would your sympathies lie; with the driver/doctor
at fault or the person injured?
Imagine then
if the insurers who had raised their premiums complained about the fact that
the victim’s paralysis had cost them money and newspapers went on to publish
their complaints, detailing the cost to the insurer of the injuries their own
insured had caused, without mentioning the severity of those injuries or the
fact that they could have been avoided with just a bit more care. Would you not
think they had their priorities wrong?
If the
person paralysed was you or your loved one would you not be outraged?
Yet insurers,
the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) and the Medical Defence Union (MDU)
regularly issue figures of how much they have had to pay out to those injured
through negligence.
And
newspaper articles regularly focus on these figures, complaining about the
“compensation culture” which they claim is rife across the country (but which
in reality it is accepted does not exist).
They give
little or no column inches to the person who has been injured. Nor often is
there any emphasis on the fact that those injuries were caused because of
carelessness by the other party, i.e. that there was fault.
Instead of
expressing regret at the unacceptably high levels of unnecessary injuries those
figures evidence or promising they will do more to ensure that these figure are
reduced they complain about how much it is costing to compensate those who have
been injured, maimed or killed through the carelessness of their insured or member.
These figures
are actively pushed into the media with the suggestion that the cost is not
connected to another’s failings but to the audacious way in which the victims
of negligence complain and ‘greedily’ ask for compensation.
Why is the
focus not on the reason that money is being paid and to whom it is being paid?
The
paralysed victim and their family are human beings whose lives have been
devastated and will never be the same again.
They can
only claim compensation because something went wrong through no (or usually
little) fault of their own.
They have
been injured, often seriously, because someone else has been careless.
Why is the
focus not on what the money is for?
A young girl
with a spinal cord injury may not be able to move, stand, sit or go to the
toilet herself and will need someone to do that for her for rest of her life.
Why is the
focus not on the motivation of those who do make claims? It is not because they
think it is “easy money”. It is about need, not want.
Making sure
someone who is severely injured is looked after is expensive there is no doubt
- but that is not the injured person’s fault- and the compensation paid will
cover some of the costs of care so that the NHS/local authority doesn’t have
to.
I ask those
complaining and those reading those complaints to put themselves in the shoes
of those who are living with disabilities that could have been avoided with more
care, before they pass comment.
I believe
that those who have to pay out compensation should stop the victim blaming and
instead focus on the victim and future victims and look to reduce the
devastating injuries that are unfortunately still occurring every day.
Nicola
Wainwright, Partner – Leigh Day
http://www.leighday.co.uk/
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