Car accident other party admits liabilty - what should i do?

jehangir

Can anyone please advise me , I was in an accident a 12 days ago which was not my fault but as i have third party insurance , my insurers have said thay i will have to
handle the case myself .

Yesterday i had a call from the other insurer saying that their client has admitted liabilty , not knowing what to donI went to one of these no win no pay companys who refered me to a solicitor.

This morning i received a letter from the solicitor saying that there would be a £750 referral fee ( which seems very high) plus if i was to win the case there would service fees plus 20% of the compensation which would be claimed back from the other insurer.
y.

I know they will not take it out of the compensation but surely this amount must effect the claim , especially as they have admitted liabilty.

I can cancel the solicitors ( 7 days to do so ) , but would i be charged.
I suffered whiplash in the crash and damage to my car , also nothing of the fees were mentioned when i went to the claim company ( i did not sign anything ).

Any help would be a aprreciated
shap

dacouch

Are you just claiming for the repair of the car and alternative transport or are you also claiming for injuries and / or loss of earnings?

AnneH1957

jehangir wrote: »

Can anyone please advise me , I was in an accident a 12 days ago which was not my fault but as i have third party insurance , my insurers have said thay i will have to
handle the case myself .

Yesterday i had a call from the other insurer saying that their client has admitted liabilty , not knowing what to donI went to one of these no win no pay companys who refered me to a solicitor.

This morning i received a letter from the solicitor saying that there would be a £750 referral fee ( which seems very high) plus if i was to win the case there would service fees plus 20% of the compensation which would be claimed back from the other insurer.
y.

I know they will not take it out of the compensation but surely this amount must effect the claim , especially as they have admitted liabilty.

I can cancel the solicitors ( 7 days to do so ) , but would i be charged.
I suffered whiplash in the crash and damage to my car , also nothing of the fees were mentioned when i went to the claim company ( i did not sign anything ).

Any help would be a aprreciated
shap

This seems very odd to me; surely if the third party admits liability your insurance company should be contacting theirs to get them to pay for the damage to your car and possibly your injuries. It shouldn't make a difference that you only have third party cover if it wasn't your fault, you are claiming against the third party cover of the person who was responsible. I would strongly advise you NOT to involve a solicitor if you can avoid it, I speak from experience, having made the mistake of getting a solicitor involved in a medical negligence claim, too much to go into but suffice to say it's 3 years on and although it's under a no win no fee arrangement, it's looking likely that I'll get no compensation at all due to the incompetence of the solicitor.

But you really shouldn't need a solicitor. I suggest you cancel for the moment, I can't imagine they would be able to charge you yet as you haven't told them to go ahead have you? If your insurance company won't help (and I'd be changing to a more customer focussed insurer on renewal if I were you!), I think you should phone or write to the third party insurers to say that you expect your losses to be covered under their client's insurance policy, as he has admitted liability. Don't be fobbed off. Insurance companies will do anything to avoid paying out - and again, I speak from experience! - but I don't see how they can get out of this one. Car insurance is there precisely to cover losses and damage to third parties, so they really shouldn't have a choice about it.

But if you don't get anywhere with the third party insurers it would be worth looking at a claim in the small claims court, much cheaper than a solicitor. Consumer Direct might be able to advise you on that, or the CAB.

Good luck, let me know how it works out!

Anne

sarahg1969

£750 referral fee from the solicitor to accident management company - it's money for old rope, isn't it?

Which claims company is this, jehangir? And which solicitors have taken on the claim?

jehangir

hi thanks for all the information it is very much appreciated .

The claim company is the motor claim line , firsty i must say they did not mention anything about fees etc when i went it there , they just said that they would recommend a solicitor who would act on my behalf. When i ask what was in it for them they said nothing , and they made their money from leasing out cars when acciddents occur.

The letter i received from the solicitors includes a form form of authority to act , and of cancellation which i have 7 days to fill in but i do not know if i will be charged for the work they have done up to this point .

My insurers ( swiftcover ) do not want to know, they just say as i am third party and did not take out legal cover it is not their problem.

I have just had phone call from the other parties insurers who have said that i should take my car to a garage in the city centre to get a qoute and they would provide a courtesy car but to be honest i do no need one as my car is driveable .

As for the injuries , when the accident happened , i went to the A+E as i could not bend of mover my neck , the said that i had whiplash , which has steadily got worst ( on pain killers and Diazepam.


I was told that as they have admitted liablity that it will be easier and faster to deal direct with them direct but as i have never had to make a claim or deal with solicitors before it is quite intimadating.

gordikin

jehangir, start a thread on this in the insurance forum...there are some very knowledgable and experienced guys on there.

jehangir

thanks i have just posted the thread on the insurance claim , i phoned up swiftcover who refuse to help and suggests that i should phone the other party if they can recommend a solicitor

jehangir

I will cancel the solicitor tommorow ,as if they are not upfront with the fees now God knows what they will charge for later.

I have just been to the CAB and the say that my insurer has no duty to help as i am Third party , but again they could not give me any suggestions on how to proceed other than making sure i read the small print.

Impet_Limpet

I had the help of a company called T & C motors in Manchester, they sorted it all out for me after a van ran into the back of me at some traffic lights, lent me a car (brought it all the way to blackpool for me), they negociated a really good write off payout on my car and I didn;t have to pay anything at all. I'll try and dig out the info hopefully there will be someone like that near to yourself.

jehangir

Hi , I do not have legal cover and not covered by my house insurance.

Just an update , i sent off the cancellation form to the solicitor and phoned them to let them know thay i did not want them to carry on with the case, they were not to happy but said i would not incur any fees.

They did let slip that the referall fee of £800 was to be paid to the claim company for just phoning through my details to them but insisted it would not impact my case.

I contacted the law society as Daisy suggested ( thanks again ) and was given a list of PI solicitors who i could deal with direct .

Thanks again to all who took the time to answer my questions and offered their advice . Its nice to know there is some good people out there.

AnneH1957

jehangir wrote: »

Hi , I do not have legal cover and not covered by my house insurance.

Just an update , i sent off the cancellation form to the solicitor and phoned them to let them know thay i did not want them to carry on with the case, they were not to happy but said i would not incur any fees.

They did let slip that the referall fee of £800 was to be paid to the claim company for just phoning through my details to them but insisted it would not impact my case.

I contacted the law society as Daisy suggested ( thanks again ) and was given a list of PI solicitors who i could deal with direct .

Thanks again to all who took the time to answer my questions and offered their advice . Its nice to know there is some good people out there.

Hi again jehangir,

Just wondered if you'd had any further communication with the third party insurers. I still don't understand why they won't pay out, when their client is insured for third party damage and has admitted liability. It really shouldn't make any difference that you only have third party cover, and no legal cover - the legal cover is so that your insurers can get back uninsured losses from the third party, and as far as I can tell, unless I've missed something vital, the damage to your car is insured, and your injuries should be covered too. If the third party insurers won't pay out, what is the point of car insurance?

Anne