Accident, Insurance claim and Uninsured Loss via Solicitor

NikNox

Hi everyone,

My 17 year old son had an accident on Sunday night on his moped. He was travelling down a hill, and another motocyclist pulled out on him from a side junction on his left. My son could not avoid the impact and unfortunately went into the side of the other bike, flew over the top and landed in the road. The other rider is 18. Immediately afterwards the other rider said 'oh my god, that's my fault, are you okay'. Son phoned us and of course we went straight to him. His bike is a complete mess, smashed up at the front, frame bent, forks bent etc. Other bike not too bad. Other riders mother turned up and immediately started blaming my son, then calmed and said she didn't want to go through insurers but wanted us to add up the cost of repairing my sons bike and said she would pay. Police were called but didn't attend as no-one needed an ambulance. All went home as it was midnight, and sons bike was wheeled on it's back wheel to my mother's house which just so happened to be around the corner. Next day we decide to go through insurers as son's back very painful following accident. Took him to GP, who said there was bruising externally and internally and advised a week off work self certified. Phoned insurance company, very helpful, said it was straightforward as not my son's fault. He is insured TP only. They organise for the bike to be collected and for a hire bike to be dropped off for my son to use. Son's mobile was also smashed in accident. Insurers recommended putting the case to a solicitor's firm to claim the uninsured losses, i.e. mobile, loss of earnings, helmet etc., and they contacted us the very same day. Very nice, promised there would be no fees whatsoever etc. Have to say felt a little pushed into it as I have to act as son's representative until he's 18 in February. Got paperwork from them yesterday to fill in, and it's scared the life out of me!! It states that if we change solicitors they will charge, if we stop the claim they will charge and talks about Court proceedings etc. I realise that this may not happen, but quite often throughout the paperwork it mentions charges.

Of course my son has been greatly inconvenienced through this accident. His beloved moped is probably a write off, he's had to take time off work, a job he's only been in since August (Carpenter's Apprentice), and he has a very painful back. He won't get sick pay for his time off, and we're not sure whether he will be fit enough to return to work next Monday yet. He does now have a hire bike to use, which we're assuming the cost of will be taken from the other party's insurance as part of the uninsured loss.

In member's opinions, would anyone recommend carrying on with this claim via the solicitors? I haven't signed anything yet, so now is the time to cancel it rather than later. He's been told he's probably looking at a few hundred quid for his back injury, his loss of earnings recouperated and replacement of his mobile phone and helmet. But, because the paperwork is so 'heavy', and after February next year he'll be dealing with it all on his own, I'm wondering if it's worth it and scared we'll get hit with fees we simply cannot afford.

At the end of the day, he either just wants his bike repaired or written off and paid for it and his loss of earnings recovered, and I would imagine that the bike bit would be dealt with just via the Insurance?

Help!!

dacouch

One thing to bear in mind is the moped is hired to you on a credit hire agreement, this normally means that if the hire company cannot recover the hire charges from the other Insurer they pursue you for the money (Not always).

As your son is injured and off work at the moment the other Insurers will probably argue that he does not need a hired vehicle for the moment and thus refuse to pay for the hire whilst he cannot ride a moped.

I would recommend you contact them and state the above to them, take a note of the person's name you speak to and the date / time of the call. Ideally send them a letter by recorded delivery pointing this out to them.

(The above is assuming your son is not able to ride a moped at the moment due to injuries)

NikNox

Thanks for that. His back injury is such that he finds it painful to bend, and as a Carpenters apprentice, a lot of bending is required (to work). He is walking with a sideways lean (looks quite funny), but when dosed up with painkillers can ride the moped. The bike was delivered at the same time his broken bike was recovered, and the company responsible did phone yesterday afternoon to ask a couple of questions, which were (1) was the moped his only mode of transport - yes, and (2) would he be able to afford to replace his bike should it be written off, before the insurance paid out - answer to that was no. I'm guessing they were trying to ascertain how long he might be needing the hire bike for, or trying to get his claim sorted asap so he doesn't need it for too long. Apparently the other party have not admitted liability yet, and legally they have 90 days to do so, so it may boil down to one's word against the other and examining both bikes to determine exactly what happened. Not sure though, and have never, ever claimed on insurance for anything before, so this is all new and quite scary!