"Investigating Liability"

mrsthrifty_2

Can anyone explain exactly what this means and what they are doing

In my Sons case he had an accident 6th Jan and was phoned back within an hour of ringing to report it and told the third party were liable and in fact the other driver had immediately accepted it was his fault and actually said "yes I did pull out and No I didnt see him" ,they immediately said on this information he was entitled to car hire and legal cover etc.

It got quite hectic that day with various people calling to explain things including a Solicitor who was dealing with his claim

His car was assessed the following week by his own insurance assessor and a couple of days later the assessor of the other insurance company called to inspect as well, both resulted in the car being declared a category B write off.

The following week the other insurers assessor contacted by phone to try and get a settlement figure agreed, my Son said he really should talk to his Solicitor, to date he hasn't.

The morning after this phone call the written report on his car and a settlement price agreement was received from my Sons Solicitor, he phoned to say he had spoken to the other assessor to which they said he shouldnt have contacted my Son and they would sort it out.

He signed the paperwork and returned to his solicitor around the 21st Jan

Early February we lent him the money to buy a small replacement car as the hire vehicle was really too big and very expensive to run, he was off work at this time with no wages for sickness and the hire people were ringing on a daily basis after 21 days to ask what the position with his car was so we felt it better to let it go to cut down on running costs [ too big a vehicle is too long a story to go into], we notified the Solicitor accordingly of what we had done.

Since then we have had frequent letters for various things, out of pocket expenses, loss of earnings,medical updates etc and finally we have started chasing for the car settlement knowing the other items will take a longer course to run and have been told the third party insurers are investigating liability and have three months from the accident to decide!!!!

Have to say this has given me a very bad feeling today as all the way through this I have been assured that if liability hadnt been established my Son wouldn't have got the car hire, legal help etc

Is this normal , is it a ploy because the driver admitted liability before he spoke to his insurers , if they are trying to wriggle why havn't they wriggled before ??

dacouch

You need to speek to your solicitor as he will know what the ins and outs of your case are and how he wants to play it.

At worse case scenario you could always get your own insurers to pay for the car.

P.S Is the other Insurer Zurich or Norwich Union

mrsthrifty_2

thanks dacouch ... I see you are having a busy night again

I spoke today on my Sons behalf after she told him about liability being investigated.

She implied it was pretty normal and she would grind a bit harder to get a proforma amount paid .... I just found the wording a little unnerving.

My Son was only TPFT on this vehicle, he was with Zurich , the third party insurers are NFU

We renewed last week and he is now with provident but has upgraded to FC now he is in full time employment but they have obviously left the other policy till settled on file.

dacouch

I had a claim a couple of months where we were trying to claim off the NFU and they were really really appalling. They had farmed some of the claims out to another company and the file was always out of the system. I would politely ask them to put a search out for the file and ring me within a week. They would not bother so I would ring again and then again and then again etc. I was really unimpressed with how they dealt with that claim (I don't deal with them directly).

I suspect this is possibly what has happened with your claim, they probably don't want to pay until they have confirmed with their client he was definanetly at fault.

Alternatively the other driver may have changed his story so they are working out if they are at fault totally or partially.

Like I said have a word with your solicitor and mention I said they had a massive massive backlog on dealing with third party claims a few months back. It may fit in with how he is finding dealing with them so may help him decide what to do.

Crazy Jamie will be on tommorow he might be able to give you some helpful advice

mrsthrifty_2

dacouch wrote: »

they probably don't want to pay until they have confirmed with their client he was definanetly at fault.

Alternatively the other driver may have changed his story so they are working out if they are at fault totally or partially.

really hope they are not playing dirty and going for a partial after all this time and that it is as you have said they are farming claims out and dont have the info, this would fit as our Solicitor has tried to get them to talk about this every day this week so far but they dont get back to her.

Maybe they have received some of the claim paperwork and are getting nervous, a Land Rover with a scratched wheel hub and arch V a Peugeot 106, loss of earnings and an ongoing PI claim still being medically treated, an over eager client who held his hands up and admitted it was his fault to our insurers imediately but didnt inform his own insurers, didnt wait for the police at the incident and waived a passing ambulance on without asking if the person he had hit was all right !!!

Thanks dacouch ... I will ring tomorrow and pass your info on :beer:

Atermis

mrsthrifty wrote: »

longer course to run and have been told the third party insurers are investigating liability and have three months from the accident to decide!!!!

Have to say this has given me a very bad feeling today as all the way through this I have been assured that if liability hadnt been established my Son wouldn't have got the car hire, legal help etc

Insurers are allowed 3 months to investigate re: liability, they are doing nothing wrong.

TBH like others have advised best speaking to your solicitor, as they know the ins and outs of the case.

Crazy_Jamie

Lot of information all at once here. I think I understand what's going on, but if I get anything wrong feel free to correct me. From what I understand so far your son has been involved in an accident where he has actually suffered personal injury as well having his car written off. He has now instructed a solicitor (sounds like he was referred from what you said in your original post, but that really doesn't make a difference to you if it's being dealt with properly), and the other side have either also instructed a solicitor, it is being dealt with by some kind of in house legal team.

Assuming all of this is correct, I should be able to answer most of your questions.

have been told the third party insurers are investigating liability and have three months from the accident to decide!!!!

This seems to be your biggest concern, and I can assure you that this is entirely normal. Before your solicitors can commence legal proceedings they need to follow what is called the Personal Injury Pre Action Protocol. The first part of this is your solicitors sending a letter of claim to the other side, setting out the facts, nature of the losses, and basis for the claim. After acknowledging that letter, the other side then have 90 days to complete their investigations in relation to the claim. That's the stage that you're up to now, and that's why the third party insurers have three months to decide on liability. It is entirely normal. If you want to read the Protocol, you can find a copy here. Your solicitor should be able to simplify it for you though. Suffice to say that there is a fairly lengthy procedure to go through before legal proceedings will be issued. It varies as to how long it takes to complete the protocol requirements, but anything up to six months (perhaps even a little longer) would be reasonable in a case like this. So don't worry if you think that everything is going a bit slow. That's what is supposed to happen. If you are concerned at any point, contact the solicitor and they should be able to keep you up to date with what's happening.

Since then we have had frequent letters for various things, out of pocket expenses, loss of earnings,medical updates etc and finally we have started chasing for the car settlement knowing the other items will take a longer course to run and

Just a note here, but it is unlikely that a settlement for one particular item will be actually given to you before any other. All items of loss with generally be agreed and a total figure arrived at before the settlement is paid. If liability is admitted (so the other side will be paying something, you just don't know how much), and your son is in financial difficulty because he isn't working, ask his solicitors about the possibility of approaching the other side for an interim payment. That's essentially where the other side admits that they will be paying something, but the injured party needs some money now and can't afford to wait for the outcome of the litigation due to financial issues. In such circumstances the other party is normally willing to advance some money before settlement or trial to ease the financial burden. If they don't agree to it then it is possible to go to court to get an interim payment. Again, if this is something that you feel your son needs then ask your solicitor about it. It's probable that your solicitor was talking about an interim payment when s/he talked about a 'pro forma amount being paid'.

The following week the other insurers assessor contacted by phone to try and get a settlement figure agreed, my Son said he really should talk to his Solicitor, to date he hasn't.

Another note here, but if you receive anything from the other side, be it a phonecall, letter or anything else, you should not deal with them directly. Forward everything to your solicitor.

The only other advice that I have at this stage is that your son's injury sounds reasonably significant if it's keeping him off work, and in any event it could be some time before this is concluded. In the mean time be sure to keep a note of all expenses incurred as a result of this injury, and proof of payment where you can. Travel expenses to and from hospital (if you're driving note the mileage), the cost of pain killing medication etc is all recoverable, but you'll need proof to back up claims for it.

If you have any more specific questions or queries, just ask and I'll do my best to help.

mrsthrifty_2

Thank you Crazy Jamie for the info

It is a referred Solicitor and not our own personnel one and to date every thing is spot on to what you have said.

I had the wrong wording, it was an interim payment she mentioned yesterday she was going for and yes I did panic when investigating liability was mentioned.

My Son is now back at work all be it on light duties as the injuries were all internal but is still receiving pysio at the moment

All expenses and receipts have been passed on , on a weekly basis and at the moment the only thing hanging is 2 hours loss of earnings each week for pysio treatment, the Solicitor has said she will get this confirmed today with his employer

thanks once again for taking the time to explain :beer:

agaveworm

"It got quite hectic that day with various people calling to explain things including a Solicitor who was dealing with his claim"

That's because there was a 'pound of flesh' sale with plenty of customers banging on the shop windows....

mrsthrifty_2

sorry to drag this thread up again but things are at last moving again

received today a schedule of special damages to be agreed and signed back

the list has a couple of errors which I will correct and send but the main concern is the statement received from my sons employers.

we have already sent in pay slips to the solicitor to show loss of earnings which show his hourly rate of pay and additional night shift allowance per hour.

the employer has quoted a completely different rate of hourly pay and allowance ...... I really dont know why the solicitor hasnt picked up on this before sending us a copy of the report from the employer but.....

additionally in the report is a statement showing losses to the company and a figure ..... this has also been included in the schedule.

is this the norm ??? that employers also can claim from this accident loss claim ??

geri1965_2

Yes, completely normal.