Car accident and legal expenses

[Thea]

Heres the background: my car was it when a driver failed to give way damaging the front left side of my car. I am fully comprehensive so my car is being fixed. I am with endsleigh.

Now the problem is they have passed my claim to Mckeowns solicitors. I have not being injured so just what the responisble party to admit liability so it does not go on my record (i will lose my no claims bonus if i have more then 2 claims in 3 years and i already had one before the incident) and claim back my £150 excess. Reading the documents the solicitors have sent me, they are acting as 'no win no fee'. They want me to sign an agreement to say i want them to act on my behalf and that if i win i agree to pay their basic charges, disbursements, a success fee and insurance premium.

What the hell?? i never agreed to any of this and at no point have i said i was injured. I thought endsleigh were suppose to deal with all of this and simply send me a cheque as refund for the excess was liability has been determined.

Please help!!!

[AdrianHi]

This is the only route through which you can claim uninsured losses such as devaluation of your car due to accident damage, your lost time and expenses incurred through not having the use of your car. It would also cover injury and stress.
When someone ran into the back of my wifes car she was genuinely stressed for sometime afterwards and had all the usual hassle with hire cars etc. so we went ahead and got awarded about £1500 which under the circumstances seemed fair. I'd say more than half of that figure was compensation for stress determined at an interview with the solicitor concerned. This got paid for out of the legal expenses cover we had added onto the car policy when it was fist taken out, so we had no further fees to pay to make this claim.

If you don't feel you have suffered injury or stress and cannot reasonably prove other uninsured losses such as lost earnings or hire car costs not paid for elsewhere then may be you should leave it, however there is no harm in having a conversation with the solicitor to see what they say. If they don't think you have enough of a case they probably won't want to take it on. Just make sure you don't stand to win say £300 and find their charges are higher than that.