'I Thought It Would Be Therapeutic For My Back... Bruv'

Jamayne Brown v Paul Smith

This case was handled by DAC Beachcroft's Counter-Fraud Department on behalf of the Defendant following instructions from his insurers NIG which saw the Claimant provide an interesting response to some damming social media evidence which undermined his claim for whiplash following a minor road traffic incident.

Facts of the Case

Proceedings arose out of a minor incident, which occurred in February 2018 in the car Park on Upper Dean Street in Birmingham. The Defendant was proceeding to manoeuvre into a parking space when his bleeper went off to signal that there was an object directly behind him. The Claimant's case was that he had been stationary behind the Defendant when he reversed into him at speed causing his vehicle to be written off and that he suffered personal injury. The Defendant disputed that he had caused any damage to the Claimant's vehicle and that anyone could have been injured.

DAC Beachcroft defended the claim on the grounds that no damage was caused in the minor incident and that the Claimant could not have been injured. DAC Beachcroft obtained favourable forensic engineering evidence to support the fact that the damage alleged by the Claimant could not have been caused in the index incident. The Claimant's solicitors agreed to the Defendant having permission to rely upon this evidence. It was known to NIG that the Claimant had been involved in a previous road traffic accident in 2017, despite requests the Claimant failed to provide documentation from this incident.

The Claimant served a witness statement maintaining that all the damage in the above photographs had been caused by the index incident and that he had almost recovered from his previous incident by February 2018 and therefore blamed the index incident for his ongoing whiplash and anxiety, which he had caused him to stop working and enjoy every day activities for nearly 12 months.

DAC Beachcroft's intelligence team were able to gather evidence from his (public) social media page which undermined the Claimant's case, in particular they...