DH had accident. Which way forward ?

dacouch

december wrote: »

Sorry I was unclear, when sending back my certificate of insurance I noticed that I didn't have legal expenses cover on there, despite me being sure that I'd asked for it. The insurance company automatically appointed a solicitors I think.

Your Insurers will earn around £300 for each injured person and £150 for the credit hire so it's a nice earner for them.

Which Insurer is it

december

Hastings although I've not been impressed with them tbh.

forgotmyname

Lots of no win no fee companies around to make paying for legal protection rather pointless.

My mum had an accident a couple of years back, RAC arranged car to be towed to the dealer & before my mum had got home there was a brand new hire car sitting outside.

She didnt have a clue who arranged it all or where the car came from.

Only later after it was all sorted she got a letter saying the 3rd party had not settled the hire car charges & would she sign a form saying she will be liable if they refuse to pay.

One for the shredder.

dacouch

forgotmyname wrote: »

Lots of no win no fee companies around to make paying for legal protection rather pointless.

My mum had an accident a couple of years back, RAC arranged car to be towed to the dealer & before my mum had got home there was a brand new hire car sitting outside.

She didnt have a clue who arranged it all or where the car came from.

Only later after it was all sorted she got a letter saying the 3rd party had not settled the hire car charges & would she sign a form saying she will be liable if they refuse to pay.

One for the shredder.

There are situations that a no win no fee company will not become involved so it is not always wise to dismiss taking out before the event legal cover.

If your mum signed a credit agreement and / or their contract it will be subject to her assisting with any court cases. If you've signed the forms and don't assist there is a chance you end up getting presented with the bill.

The credit hire car would have been provided by someone connected to RAC or the Dealer in return for commission

izoomzoom

It seems this thread has been taken over a bit.

We are a bit confused.

A solicitor called DH today and has sent a whole lot of letters and forms to fill in.

I am not sure if we have to pay for this solicitor or not ?

Extract from letter:

• LEGAL COSTS

The local County Court Directive produced after consultation with the Law Society governs the Firm’s charging rate. We charge by the hour for the work that we do including time spent writing and receiving letters, making and receiving telephone calls, working on case papers, travelling etc. Routine letters that we write and routine telephone calls that we make and receive will be charged as units of 1/10th of an hour. Other letters and calls will be charged on a time basis.

The current hourly rate is £250.00 per hour. We will add VAT to this at the applicable rate when your claim is completed. At present VAT is 17.5%. The total amount we can charge is the limit of indemnity under your legal expenses policy. If the claim falls within the fixed costs scheme our minimum charges are the costs allowable under that scheme.

In addition to the time spent, we may take into account a number of factors which include the complexity of the issue, the speed at which action must be taken, the expertise or special knowledge that the case requires and if appropriate, the value of the property or subject matter involved. On the basis of the information currently available, we expect these factors to be adequately covered by the hourly rates set out above. The rates may be higher if, for example, the matter becomes more complex than expected. We will notify you of this.

If you have any query about the level of any revised rates notified to you, please contact our legal costs department straight away.

On the 1st April annually we will review the hourly rate to take account of changes in our overhead costs and notify you in writing of any increased rate. We will advise you of the costs situation at regular intervals and of any change in circumstances, which are likely to affect the amount of the costs.

In addition to the Firm’s legal costs we will also incur other expenses on your behalf called “disbursements”. These may include the cost of obtaining copies of your medical records and a medical report from a medical expert. These expenses may also include the costs of consulting a barrister and any court fees, if it becomes necessary to issue court proceedings. VAT is payable in addition. At present VAT is 17.5%.

Although you have a legal liability for our costs, the legal expenses insurance policy that you have taken out with Albany will pay, under its terms, all the costs and disbursements associated with bringing a claim for compensation whether you win or lose the case. You will not have to pay anything providing you give assistance in bringing a claim in accordance with the terms of the policy. We will let you know what assistance is required and advise you if anything you do or refrain from doing puts you at risk of breaching your legal expenses policy.

Examples of this include if you: -

• Decide to end this agreement before the conclusion of the claim.
• Knowingly provide dishonest information or mislead us.
• Go against our advice, i.e. if we believe that the third party has made an acceptable offer which you wish us to reject.
• Waste clinic time e.g. not attending a medical appointment that has been arranged for you.

• THE COST OF YOUR CLAIM

We would expect to bring this matter to a conclusion within 12 months of the Firm being instructed. An estimate of our fees is difficult at this stage because it is not possible to accurately estimate how much work will be necessary to complete the matter. However, we would expect our fees to be within a range of £2,000 to £7,000 together with VAT and any expenses and court fees, dependent upon the complexity of the matter and whether or not court proceedings prove necessary.

You are entitled to costs updates every 6 months. As your claim is funded we do not propose to update you unless it appears the costs estimate is likely to be or is about to be exceeded. Please let us know if you need further updates.

The court rules now include a fixed cost scheme relating to road traffic accident claims that settle for less than £10,000.00 without court proceedings being necessary. If your case falls within this category then the level of costs we can recover from the other side is fixed. It is not possible at this stage to estimate whether or not the fixed costs we can recover will be less or more than the cost of the time we will have spent on the normal charging basis detailed above pursuing the matter for you.

In the event of settlement being reached without court proceedings for under £10,000.00, we will agree to accept the figure we recover in fixed costs in settlement of your liability for costs. On this basis, you also accept that should the fixed costs we recover be in excess of the cost of the time we have spent on our normal charging basis we may retain that money as costs.

In claims such as these there is a good chance that court proceedings will be necessary because the paying insurer does not wish to compensate you fully or at all. We will advise you of the correct value of your claim and the best course of action to achieve the best settlement dependant on the circumstances. Should you accept that advice and pursue that course but then change your mind at a later stage, without any change in the circumstances of your case, there will be a potential exposure to legal fees from ourselves but more pertinently from your opponent. If you are found to have acted unreasonably in changing your mind the court would order you to pay the wasted legal costs. Moreover your legal expenses insurer would not indemnify you for the additional legal fees incurred or wasted in these circumstances, so these would be borne by you personally. An order for wasted legal fees is typically £1,000.00 to £3,000.00 although it can be much higher and more than the value of the claim. It is therefore important that when we decide together on a course of action in your claim that we stick to it in order to maximise your compensation and reduce the risk of your exposure to a wasted costs order.

What does all this mean, in plain simple english ?

izoomzoom

Just been looking at the keyfacts booklet that came with policy schedule and it says Legal Expenses Cover is supplied as standard.

Does this mean we do have legal cover ???

Car is really not worth much, maybe £1000, and we think it will probably be written off (for insurance purposes).

DH went to Dr this am, and they have confirmed he has whiplash, so might as well claim for injury compensation.

dacouch

One thing jumps out at me from that and it's Albany, they have a really really bad reputation for being inept and slow.

You can find threads from other MSE members on Albany by going to the top of the page, enter "Albany" in the search box and then click on the next box and change it to "forum" You will find a large number of threads about them.

redpete

izoomzoom wrote: »

What does all this mean, in plain simple english ?

It tells you how they work out the costs associated with making the claim.

It says that you have legal expenses insurance (with Albany) that will pay these costs so you don't have to.

It says that if you mess up the case because of something you do then you might be liable for some or all of the costs.

When you let me have your address I will invoice you for the time it took me to write this - pro-rata at £250 per hour. (Although it did seem remarkably clear for a legal document.)

C_Mababejive

From my experience,legal cover is hardly worth a jot. In your case,it doesnt really apply anyway as you simply claim off the other party.

Be careful about letting your insurance co choose the repairer as they often use high volume/lower quality repairers. Choose a manufacturer approved body shop for your car if its fairly new so that you dont invalidate any warranties.