insurance claim advice , can you help?

joanne_d_3

stator wrote: »

You may have to pay the solicitor his costs up to this point, particularly since he has probably paid a referral fee to your insurance company for them to give him the case.

Hi there.

Both my husband and the other party are insured with the same company !

I would imagine that when we telephone the insurance company on monday and offer them the choice of paying the solicitor for the work already done (which is probably quite a small figure at this point given as all he has done is send us out 1 letter today) and us ACCEPTING the offer they made to us today .....

OR

The only alternative is that we telephone them on monday and tell them that we refuse their offer and that the solicitor will be in touch . In this case THEY are going to be the ones shelling out the legal fee's !!

If i were the insurance company i would be hoping and praying that option 1 is taken !

The thing is.....my husband has had a personal injury claim before and the amount he got then (just 18 months ago) was roughly the same as the amount he has been offered today and during thsi last compensation claim he had a solicitor on the case !

So , if a solicitor got him xxx amount then and hes been offered that same amount now there just doesnt see, any point in dragging it out.

JPS29

It seem s like there will be no changing your mind but just ask yourself what if your husband isn't fully recovered in 12 months/2 years 5 years etc. Just search this forum and you'll find loads of threads of people who have taken the first offer on a full and final settlement only for their injuries not to clear. Just because one previous injury recovered from quickly doesn't mean this will. Don't just see the £ signs, think hard about it, and I mean no offence by that, I've been there but the best course of action can only be taken once you have had a full medical exam investigating the injuroes in full, offering physio where necessary and giving a prognosis for recovery.

stator

joanne_d wrote: »

Hi there.

Both my husband and the other party are insured with the same company !

I would imagine that when we telephone the insurance company on monday and offer them the choice of paying the solicitor for the work already done (which is probably quite a small figure at this point given as all he has done is send us out 1 letter today) and us ACCEPTING the offer they made to us today .....

OR

The only alternative is that we telephone them on monday and tell them that we refuse their offer and that the solicitor will be in touch . In this case THEY are going to be the ones shelling out the legal fee's !!

If i were the insurance company i would be hoping and praying that option 1 is taken !

The thing is.....my husband has had a personal injury claim before and the amount he got then (just 18 months ago) was roughly the same as the amount he has been offered today and during thsi last compensation claim he had a solicitor on the case !

So , if a solicitor got him xxx amount then and hes been offered that same amount now there just doesnt see, any point in dragging it out.

If you pull out of the agreement with the solicitor I doubt the insurance company will stump up for that. They will probably come to you for the costs since you're the one pulling out.

joanne_d_3

stator wrote: »

If you pull out of the agreement with the solicitor I doubt the insurance company will stump up for that. They will probably come to you for the costs since you're the one pulling out.

Are you seriously saying that if i give theinsurance company the option of :

A) paying the solicitors fee's accumulated between Friday when i telephone him and Monday when i tell him his services are no longer required , during which time the bill will consist of ONE LETTER WHICH HE HAS SENT TO US TO INTRODUCE HIMSELF

OR....

paying for the fee's for a solicitor to defend the ENTIRE claim which will probably result in us getting several hundred pounds more ontop of the offer they have already made to us PLUS a few grand to represent us from start to finish....

God.....if i were the insurance company i would know for SURE whcih option i would be going for !

But , we will see , i am ringing them tomorrow.

daveyjp

Why are you so concerned about saving money for other organisations? Your husband has injuries which he needs compensation for. Don't sell yourself short. The surgeon may say he will have problems for life, or he may need surgery which could mean him unable to work for a few months. Who pays the bills if he can't drive his taxi?

joanne_d_3

daveyjp wrote: »

Why are you so concerned about saving money for other organisations? Your husband has injuries which he needs compensation for. Don't sell yourself short. The surgeon may say he will have problems for life, or he may need surgery which could mean him unable to work for a few months. Who pays the bills if he can't drive his taxi?

I guess the only way in which i can answer the above question is by saying that we are honest people !

We are not in this for "what we can get" , we are simply looking to be compensated for the injuries received in the accident and in all honesty my husband was (in our opinion) very VERY fortunate.

In the grand scale of things my husband walked away with mild to moderate injuries which may be lingering a bit but we are confident they will ease with time.

To play on these injuries to gain a higher level of compensation would be wrong . We have had a good service from the insurance company from many years now and if we and they are able to sort it without massive legal fee's then that seems a better way forward.

In saying that , IF we telephone them tomorrow and they say that they are unable to stand by the offer made on friday (as the solicitor i contacted on friday to take the case on said he was going straight off the telephone with me to telephone the insurance company so they now know he is on the case) Then in that instance i will be telling the solicitor just to go ahead with proceedings!

Thanks all

magpiecottage

The FSA requires all firms it regulates to adhere to 11 high level principles.

Principle 8 says, "A firm must manage conflicts of interest fairly, both between itself and its customers and between a customer and another client."

Given that the other driver is another client of the insurer, I think it is entirely reasonable that you should insist that the independent solicitor deal with the claim, at the insurers expense, in order that the insurer meets its obligations under Principle 8.

If you explain this reasoning to the insurer, it will be hard pressed to refuse.

joanne_d_3

magpiecottage wrote: »

The FSA requires all firms it regulates to adhere to 11 high level principles.

Principle 8 says, "A firm must manage conflicts of interest fairly, both between itself and its customers and between a customer and another client."

Given that the other driver is another client of the insurer, I think it is entirely reasonable that you should insist that the independent solicitor deal with the claim, at the insurers expense, in order that the insurer meets its obligations under Principle 8.

If you explain this reasoning to the insurer, it will be hard pressed to refuse.

Hi and thanks for the response.

The insurers will be willing to allow an independant solicitor to deal with the case if we so wish .

But , if we accept the offer which the insurance company have made to us we will have our cheque with 7-10 days....

If we instruct the solicitor to take on the case we will get our settlement in maybe 7-10 MONTHS !!!

The solicitor has sent us a letter telling my husband he has an appointment with a consultant in Mid Aug !

My husband was involved in an accident (a worse accident than this one BY FAR) in August 2008 in which a solicitor managed the case for us .

The settlement offered THIS time WITHOUT the use of a solicitor is only £200 less than what the solicitor got for him last time , this leads us to think whats the point dragging it out through solicitors etc for such a small amount of extra compensation ?

Any way...i intend to ring the insurance company AND the solicitor first thing tomorrow and see what they both have to say.

bouncydog1

Why do you feel that you need to settle this so quickly - you mentioned your husband was driving a taxi - is he unable to work? Loss of earnings will be recoverable from the insurers for the third party and will form part of your claim.

Personally I think you should wait and ensure that your husband is fully recovered and be in less of a rush to accept the first offer that is made.

Have you thought about what will happen if your husband's injuries don't get fully better - what if he is unable to sit for long periods - this will affect his future earnings potential if he is a taxi driver.

Once you have agreed a full and final settlement you don't have a leg to stand on.

You are clearly very honest and want the claim to settle without milking it, and it shows what a decent person your husband is to be concerned about the other driver. The facts of the matter though are that your husband has suffered injury because of the other driver's negligence - this is what she pays her insurance for. Her premium will likely increase regardless of the size of your husband's settlement.

By all means do what is best for you, but please consider all angles before you accept any offer and remember once it's paid you won't get anything else.

joanne_d_3

bouncyd!!! wrote: »

Why do you feel that you need to settle this so quickly - you mentioned your husband was driving a taxi - is he unable to work? Loss of earnings will be recoverable from the insurers for the third party and will form part of your claim.

Personally I think you should wait and ensure that your husband is fully recovered and be in less of a rush to accept the first offer that is made.

Have you thought about what will happen if your husband's injuries don't get fully better - what if he is unable to sit for long periods - this will affect his future earnings potential if he is a taxi driver.

Once you have agreed a full and final settlement you don't have a leg to stand on.

You are clearly very honest and want the claim to settle without milking it, and it shows what a decent person your husband is to be concerned about the other driver. The facts of the matter though are that your husband has suffered injury because of the other driver's negligence - this is what she pays her insurance for. Her premium will likely increase regardless of the size of your husband's settlement.

By all means do what is best for you, but please consider all angles before you accept any offer and remember once it's paid you won't get anything else.

Bouncy , thank you very much for your post , it makes a lot of sense to me.

Ok...my husband is still working , he has only just started out as self employed so he this accident meant he only missed several days.

Yes , we are honest as in we dont want to milk the situation just to get more money out of it , after all , surely the reason (or part of the reason) insurance premiums are so high is because so many people milk compensation claims !

Im not saying in any way that there are not genuine people out there but just think how many people "fake" of exagerate injuries just to get more compensation !

We wont do that.

My husband also DID and still does feel ever so sorry for the other driver . We have a daughter of almost 17 years old , now i know that every father idolises their "little girls" but my husband and our daughter...wow that bond is just something else lol . The other driver was just 18 years old and when she ran into the back of my husband she just stood and cried and kept saying "im sorry , im sorry" . Because she was so young my husband said his heart went out to her lol , he just wanted to hug her and comfort her lol

I fully understand that the size of compensation settlement my husband receives wont affect her premium (but it WILL incerease) but hey....my husband has a heart lol.

Joanne