Aviva were presented with a personal injury claim for soft tissue damage by a third party driver, following a road traffic accident with their policyholder.
Although it was accepted that there was a genuine collison, it was not accepted that the Claimant had suffered any injury and the claim was investigated further. The Claimant was put to strict proof in respect of their alleged injuries.
The Claimant issued court proceedings.
Within the Claimant's medical evidence, they declined to provide a past medical history in respect of their neck, back and left shoulder.
DWF sought their medical records, which revealed that the Claimant had a significant past medical history in relation to these areas.
At trial, under cross-exmination, the Claimant was inconsistent with regard to a failure to attend their GP following the accident, stating that they did not attend the GP for alleged injuries due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, their records indicated that they had attended their GP for unrelated conditions and had never mentioned the road traffic accident nor any injuries.
Deputy District Judge Brook in his Judgment stated that he would not expect a perfect recollection of events following an accident but there were clear inconsistencies in the Claimant's evidence and he must conclude on the balance of probabilities that the Claimant was fundamentally dishonest.
DDJ Brook subsequently dismissed the Claimant's claim and found she was fundamentally dishonest as per Section 57 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015.
DDJ Brook disapplied Qualified One-way Costs Shifting pursuant to CPR 44.16(1) and awarded costs to the Defendant in the sum of £3081.60.
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