Many claims managers promise to keep lawyers at bay to save clients money.
But at Crawford Legal Services, we know that the ‘legal eye’ built into the claims process from the ‘first notification of loss’ is how we can help save clients money and reduce claim duration.
Here another example of our integrated solution in action…
Key facts
The Claimant brought a claim for alleged psychiatric injury as a result of a lift drop/lift entrapment. Pre-litigation, the claimant served a medical report upon the Defendant which confirmed the Claimant did not suffer with any recognised, diagnosable psychiatric injury.
Defendant’s position
Crawford Legal Services, working in conjunction with Crawford TPA as part of the connected solution, rejected the claim on the basis that causation had not been satisfied.
The Claimant had no evidence to support a compensable injury at law. The Claimant was referred to Reilly and Anor v Merseyside Regional Health Authority 1994 4 WLUK 255 & Nicholls v Rushton 1992 WL 895533 and was asked by CrawfordTPA to discontinue their claim. The strategy was set based on the common law position by Crawford Legal Services and put into action by Crawford TPA who already had flagged concerns with the veracity of the claim.
The claimant issued proceedings anyway and the Defendant issued an Application for strike out / summary judgment, pursuant to CPR 3.4(2)(a) & CPR 24 respectively.
Outcome
The Defendant was successful in striking out the claim and pursuant CPR 44.15(a). The Defendant was also awarded their costs of the claim.
The DDJ was critical of the claimant for ignoring what was considered ‘good law’ as detailed above, given the striking similarities between the case law and the case before them. Further, the DDJ was critical of the claimant where the claim was issued in the knowledge (or ignorance) that the relevant medical criteria was not met and the medical expert had specifically ruled it out.
Lessons learned
The outcome establishes the benefit of a unified approach from pre-litigation to litigation via our ‘One Crawford’ connected claims solution. The end result shows that the client significantly benefited from a clear strategy being set from the outset, with the assistance of CLS, and for that strategy to ‘stay the course’ across the life of the claim.
