In Azad v Aviva, heard at Burnley County Court on 14th September 2020, the Claimant Mr. Azad brought a claim for personal injury, recovery/storage and credit hire. The total value of the claim was just over £20,000. While liability wasn`t admitted that fact that this was a rear end collision caused the Defendants some difficulty.
David Calvert was instructed by Aviva to defend the claim – he did so without any witnesses to support the defence.
After an hour or so of intensive cross examination by David the Claimant admitted in open court to the judge that he had lied to his expert about time off work taken as a result of his injury.
As practionners will know while its not unusual for witnesses to be found by a judge to be lying, it is unusual for a witness to admit to a judge they were lying.
Unsurprisingly the Judge engaged the provisions of s57 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 with the result that the entire claim (not just for personal injury which the dishonestly related to) was dismissed.
After carrying out the valuation exercise in relation to the remaining heads of damage not infected by dishonestly and discounting the same from the Defendants costs, the Claimant incurred a costs liability of nearly £2000. But more importantly what seemed like a straightforward claim on liability and quantum was unsuccessful. No doubt the Claimant will also need to account to the car hire company…
David Calvert regularly undertakes work for all major insurers and is known to be a tenacious and successful cross examiner.