Crying wolf
OldSmoothie was moaning about insurance companies today. ‘There’s one out there at the moment which is haemorrhaging losses so fast that it’s pretty much gone into meltdown. Simply stopped paying any claims and spuriously claiming that they’re investigating the possibility of fraud on each one.’
‘Can they get away with that?’ I asked.
‘It’ll probably buy them about three months. After that, word will get around about them crying wolf and judges will just stop believing them even when the cases really are fraudulent.’
‘But don’t you need some evidence to be arguing fraud?’
‘Now you’re talking, BabyB,’ he smiled. ‘That’s where the fun starts. You see they’ve instructed UpTights to try and filibuster their files at court and although she’s not actually making any positive allegations of fraud, we’re still going to go after her personally for the costs wasted by these delays. Should certainly add a little spice to the next few months.’
‘What does UpTights think of that?’
‘We both know she’s usually so cautious she wouldn’t even break wind without passing it by the Bar Standards. But the problem for her is that this particular insurer pays about three quarters of her fees and if she doesn’t play along they’ll dump her in an instant.’
‘Ouch.’
‘Exactly so. Particularly when she’ll also be worried that if the insurer ends up going bust, she could lose the last two years of her earnings that they still owe her.’
‘Completely trapped.’
‘Don’t you just love it, BabyB. It’s what gets me out of bed in the morning and skipping to work filled with a spirit of goodwill to all.’
BabyBarista is a fictional account of a junior barrister practising at the English Bar, written by barrister and writer Tim Kevan. For more information and to read posts from the last few years visit babybarista.com. Cartoons by Alex Williams, author of 101 Ways to Leave the Law.
September 23, 2014
· Tim Kevan · Comments Closed
Tags: Article, BabyBarista, Blogposts, Law, The BabyBarista blog · Posted in: Uncategorized