Personal Injury claim following car accident advice please?

mrshappy

Hi,
I'm not sure if this is the right place for this question, but I'll try!
I was involved in a car crash almost a year ago when the third party took a corner off a dual carrigeway far too wide and hit me head on as I was approaching the junction, a passerby called emergency services and police, fire and ambulances attended. I was off work for a week with whiplash, cracked ribs etc and attended physio for months. The police came and took a statement from me a couple fo weeks later and told me that the accident had in no way been my fault and that the other driver would be charged with dangerous/reckless driving. Insurance took care of the cars, it cost over £5000 to get my lovely 9 week old car back on the road, and my insurers referred the details on to a personal injury claim company. I have provided all the information they have asked for, and for months the third party didn't respond to any of their letters. She has now contacted them via her own people stating that she was not at fault and that I was approaching the junction on her side of the road, which is nonsense! My claims people are now telling me that the case is very complex and they have no idea when it will be sorted, although they have also told me that they requested the police report in January which I think should make it perfectly clear that I was not at fault. Is this kind of stuff normal stalling tactics for a claim like this or are they taking the p*ss? I've never had to deal with anything like this before and am finding it really frustrating, I can't understand why they are making it complex! :mad:
Sorry for the big long post, thanks for reading and any advice greatly appreciated.:)

Lum

Unfortunately that is pretty normal tactics for them to try, you need to make sure that your lawyers keep on top of it and get hold of that police report. Be prepared to do some of the legwork yourself if you are able such as visiting the police and see if you can get a copy of it yourself.

Also I realise that this is a bit late but I wouldn't have accepted such a major repair on a new car as it's going to be a huge liability in terms of more things going wrong, invalidated warranty and difficulties selling it. I would have been demanding a new one. The fact that your insurers did this is worrying and may imply that they lack competence.

Quentin

PI claims do get complicated.

The timescale you are experiencing isn't unusual, and resign yourself to this taking a long time to conclude.

mrshappy

Thanks for replies, I'm just getting a bit annoyed and I took it a bit personally that she is now trying to blame me when the accident wasn't my fault! All the insurance stuff for the car was out of my hands as it is a company lease car, so any hassle with it I don't have to deal with (hopefully) lol!
The police won't tell me anything about whether they went ahead with the charges or give me a copy of the report as it's confidential! Grrrrrrrr, I just like things done quickly and easily, but that doesn't look likely with this!

dacouch

Which Insurers are involved ?

Is your legal company Albany by any chance ?

Lum

Oh, a company car, that just adds two more layers of bureaucratic idiocy between yourself and a resolution. I hope you're prepared for the long haul on this one, just be glad that your no claims bonus isn't on the line.

If the report is deemed confidential then only your lawyers can get access to it, we had a similar issue after my GFs car was rear-ended because the drivers mother came along and punched my GF in the face. Once an assault is involved it all becomes confidential and it was a 2 year nightmare trying to get the details thanks to lazy lawyers.

From what I can tell, what happens is these claims companies get something to trigger an action, such as a phone call from yourself or a letter from someone, and unless that happens they just do nothing with your case, so if the 3rd party is slow to reply or ignores the replies it will just sit there forever, so be sure to phone them every few weeks and request an update on the case and encourage them to chase up anyone who they have written to.

One thing you MUST bear in mind is that personal injury claims time out after 3 years from the date of the incident, you MUST get your lawyers to lodge the claim with a court before the 3 years is up. You can still settle out of court at any point before the hearing (which will usually be at least 6 months after the claim is lodged) but if it isn't lodged with a court then the entire thing just goes away and you get nothing.

Were you on company business at the time of the crash, out of interest?

mrshappy

dacouch wrote: »

Which Insurers are involved ?

Is your legal company Albany by any chance ?

My insurers are AIG and the claim is being handled by HJB, the third party insurer is Axa

mrshappy

Lum wrote: »

Oh, a company car, that just adds two more layers of bureaucratic idiocy between yourself and a resolution. I hope you're prepared for the long haul on this one, just be glad that your no claims bonus isn't on the line.

If the report is deemed confidential then only your lawyers can get access to it, we had a similar issue after my GFs car was rear-ended because the drivers mother came along and punched my GF in the face. Once an assault is involved it all becomes confidential and it was a 2 year nightmare trying to get the details thanks to lazy lawyers.

From what I can tell, what happens is these claims companies get something to trigger an action, such as a phone call from yourself or a letter from someone, and unless that happens they just do nothing with your case, so if the 3rd party is slow to reply or ignores the replies it will just sit there forever, so be sure to phone them every few weeks and request an update on the case and encourage them to chase up anyone who they have written to.

One thing you MUST bear in mind is that personal injury claims time out after 3 years from the date of the incident, you MUST get your lawyers to lodge the claim with a court before the 3 years is up. You can still settle out of court at any point before the hearing (which will usually be at least 6 months after the claim is lodged) but if it isn't lodged with a court then the entire thing just goes away and you get nothing.

Were you on company business at the time of the crash, out of interest?

Thanks, I didn't know they could time out. I feel as if I'm banging my head against a brick wall, everytime I phone I'm told they are dealing with it, but nothing seems to happen, in January they told me that they had asked for the police report, but nothing has come out of that, I might give the police a phone tomorrow.

What an awful thing to happen to your GF, some people....
I was fuming at the time of my accident and just walked away from the other driver, but to thump someone who you have just rear ended???????

No, I wasn't on work business when it happened, thankfully I had just dropped my son off at his friends as it was the passenger side where he had been sitting that took most of the impact, I was also told at the time that is was just as well I didn't have a passenger as they would have been seriously injured.

Lum

mrshappy wrote: »

No, I wasn't on work business when it happened, thankfully I had just dropped my son off at his friends as it was the passenger side where he had been sitting that took most of the impact, I was also told at the time that is was just as well I didn't have a passenger as they would have been seriously injured.

Ok that makes my next suggestion a bit less likely to produce useful results, but it's still worth trying.

Does your company have a decent legal department that you can talk to? They would have a vested interest in seeing this settled in your favour as presumably your work have paid you a weeks sick pay and paid you during your time off to attend physio which is all wages they can claim back plus any costs of covering for your time off such as delayed jobs, pulling people of other jobs.

I may sound like a bit of a conspiracy nutter here but we've had a real run of bad luck over the last 6 years or so and I'm gradually becoming convinced that all these insurance approved lawyers have an unwritten agreement to try and minimise and downplay costs, and provide cheap crappy repairs. It makes sense if you think about it since if all the insurers scratch each others backs in this way it brings down the overall cost of doing business in the industry.

I have had the best experiences by claiming through organisations outside of the insurance industry. Helphire used to be good but less so these days. You'd likely see best results with a proper old fashioned fee-paying lawyer but most folk cant afford those and don't want the risk, hence why I am suggesting talking to your corporate lawyers for advice.