In the ever contentious world of road accident injury claims, the latest in a long line of speculative defences to come from insurers concerns the velocity and extent of the impact.  

Its an old argument that now seems to have more substance because of the increased exposure that insurers have to injury compensation claims. The insurance industry is putting a lot of effort into defending claims from parties involved in "minor" collisions.  

This was highlighted in a Law Society Gazette article by District Judge (DJ) Gerlis who discussed the arguments involved.

There are no firm precedents on this form of defence but there are a few inconsistent case decisions that have provided both crumbs of comfort to the claimant lawyers and ammunition for defendants. One key issue is the right to introduce joint expert evidence on causation.  

The DJ provided some guidelines in his article on the key issues concerning a defence on low velocity impacts. He urged defendant insurers to raise the arguments as soon as possible particularly following the commencement of proceedings. 23rd November 2006              

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