A change in damages practice: Courts get tougher in claims cases
It is where humanity’s worst side is revealed and, only occasionally, a place to see humanity’s better side triumph. In the most serious cases, violence or gross dishonesty are centre stage but for most people, a day in court is an attempt to bridge the divide between what this world should be and what it actually is.
That balance-the-books reckoning is the objective when a person injured (or not) through a third party’s behaviour or carelessness takes a case to try to secure compensation. This essential process has been discredited by the dishonesty and opportunism of a tiny minority of claimants whose creative testimony has allowed the insurance industry create an impression that nearly anyone making a claim for damages is an unprincipled adventurer. Obviously, this is untrue but, in a minority of cases, it is unfortunately so.
