School conkers claim defended

A husband and wife from Derby tried to claim no win, no fee compensation after their daughter was hit on the head by a falling conker while at school.

Although the no win, no fee compensation claim was successfully defended, being dismissed at an early stage, it has come in for criticism from some councillors who believe that it neatly illustrates the tens of thousands of pounds spent by Derby City Council in defending spurious and dubious personal injury claims.

The cabinet member in charge of the council's resources told media, "I lived in America for seven years and it has a massive blame-claim culture over there and now I see it coming over here and some of the claims are absolutely ridiculous.

"People may think it comes out of the insurance companies' pockets but somebody pays for it in higher premiums, and for the council that person is the taxpayer of Derby.

"If there is a genuine claim for something that's happened, fair enough, but when we start looking at frivolous things like a conker falling then common sense has gone out of the window."

However, it has also been reported that the same council has recently enjoyed improved success in defending claims, particularly after contracting its legal services to Zurich Insurance.