Published on 12, July, 2020
I have just started the settlement process of a car accident 6 years ago. My children were 10 and 12 at the time and the accident triggered anxiety and panic attack disorder in both of them affecting their ability to go to school. There were criminals involved and our car was hit so hard we thought our dogs had been killed in the boot. The driver ran away and my son chased him. I had a scuffle with the passenger and my daughter was left rigid with shock. The insurance company are saying that their anxiety and lack of attending school is because they are autistic! They had no problems with school beforehand. I am so upset and feel manipulated. Would anyone like to comment? Thank you
that is a thing, if they have a condition that has these traits the court can say they was always like that because they got diagnosed, and that they wouldnt be diagnosed if they was ok and not playing up in the first place, therefore they wouldnt have a diagnosis. its a solid thing to use against you.what you can try saying is that yes, acknowledge that these diagnosis do have those traits... but you can say that event triggered and pushed them into a prolonged state of panic and anxiety and trauma that lasted a longer period. and that this was a trigger for them.the defence will try shrug this off like that and use diagnosis against you, but thats just what the defence are paid to do. it ignores the fact that this event triggers a period of anxiety, and not only that new trauma and new fears, you could describe and say your kids were then traumatised and afraid of going in the car ever again from that which then would be info to discredit the defence as thats a new layer of trauma caused by the event in question. even if it may not be the case, in law both sides are just trying to win, you say anything to win, if you go into a claim honestly you will lose as the defence will lie and snake out of it, you too need to embellish the truth.