Posted By Richard L
Morning all,

Has anyone had experience of an ex-employee claiming for an accident for which you have no record, accident book, near miss or otherwise.

I currently have one of the ambulance chasing companies requesting information on an accident that as far as I’m concerned, didn’t happen.

What did you do and what came of it?

Best Regards,

Richard

Posted By Philip McAleenan
Richard,

Gather what information that you can from the ex-employee’s solicitors;

The nature of the accident and the injuries received
The hospital or other medical facility (e.g. GP) that treated the ex-employee
The date when the alleged accident took place
Location in your workplace where it is alleged to have taken place
Actual or approximate time of the accident
Whether there were any witnesses
Any other evidence that the accident took place at work.


With this and any other relevant information that you can glean you will be able to conduct an investigation to ascertain whether it took place as described or not. Talk to his/her supervisor at the time; check your absentee records at that date (are there any sick notes for time of, or claims for sickness pay etc.), talk to other employees who were working at that time and in that location to see if the recall the incident. This should allow you to determine with a reasonable degree of certainty whether the accident took place or not, and if it did whether it took place at work or away from work.

And if you discover that it took place at work, it’s time to let your insurers start taking to the injured parties solicitors whilst you get on with the business of remedying the operational and accident management systems. And if it didn’t take place at all or at work, give this information to his solicitor.

Regards, Philip

Posted By Robert Weiland
I have many of these, we ask our Solicitor's for strick proof of claim. I also interview potential witnesses getting people in statement's to confirm or deny an accident / occurence or nothing in writing.

It's best to do this asap while people have fresh memories, one arrive on my desk last week for a "accident" back in March. Usual story - if you can show that you have trained the staff upon induction to report accidents or they have previously reported accidents but not this one via a training signiture sheet, then you have a very strong case.

Posted By Jim Walker
Can't you send the ambulance chaser a bill for time wasting?

Posted By Dave Wilson
Got to remember Richard that the 'ambulance chaser' only has a 'free' half hour to decide wheteher or not a person has a reasonable claim and a more than reasonable chance of success, as they would not take it if there was the slightest chance they would not get an insurance settlement without going to court.

They have to make a call on the facts given to them by the 'bloke / ess' sat in the chair in front of them without any other info.

If you get one of these, the letter is usually a bog standard letter requesting info whether it is relevant to the claim or not, just acknowledge reciept and say you will let the insurance company know and then try to get some info and get back to them, I would suggest that you let the EL insurance company deal with in and provide them with the info instead of the claimants solicitor, as they will make the call on what to do as it is their money after all.

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