ACCIDENT CASES

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 112, 7 November 1935, Page 4

ACCIDENT CASES

EXECSSIVE CLAIMS

Exaggerated claims in respect of injuries received were the subject of comment by Mr. Justice Blair in the Supreme Court yesterday when a man, who received an injury which partially disabled three fingers of his left hand claimed £1000 general damages. Liability was admitted and all the jury was required to do was to assess the damages. 1

His Honour told the jury it need not worry very much about the size of the claim. Large claims were not uncommon. Many ran into thousands of pounds, arid in one case recently over £100,000 was .claimed.

"Because a person opens his mouth' wide," said his Honour, "it does not mean that you have to fill it with gold. Sometimes the modesty of a claim rather commends itself to one more than the exaggerated claim, because ; when the claim is exaggerated one is inclined to be a little bit more careful about it.

"One expects parties when they come to Court to make reasonable claims that appeal to a jury as being a fair approximation of the plaintiff's loss as far as it can be measured in money."

Dealing with the reason which usually underlay exaggerated claims, his Honour said some people thought that because they claimed a particular sum they were going to get at least half. Consequently, in making a large claim plaintiffs sometimes believed they would get a bigger half than they otherwise would have got.

The jury awarded £150 in settlement of the claim for £1000.