car crashed into advice please

jhe

can anyone in insurance or any knowledge of the following please give any advice
sons car was crashed into 5 month ago. he asked for the drivers details, they refused to give them, son called police who told him to ask again for details, again refused,poice said they were on their way at which other driver drove off
police said the car was registered in london, but later that day son spotted the car parked on a drive locally and informed the police of address[the driver of the car lives there].they said they would pay them a visit.
comprehensive insurance repaired sons car.
sons car renewal now due and shot up in price as expected, so he is going to have to park it up as he cant afford the premium.
sons insurers are in contact with other insurers. sons insurer told him this week the other driver has just found a witness to accident 5 month on!
in the mean time son has a solicitor he was given by his insurers to deal with claim for his policy excess and minor injuries he has due to the accident.
just recieved letter from solicitor stating they have recieved valuation of £3000 from other sides insurers in full and final settlement,subject to liability being agreed, subject to £300 reduction as per untraced drivers agreement,
the other person according to sons insurers originally tried to claim that my son had reversed into him. the other party actually came out of side road and hit the rear back corner of his car
what i dont understand is, why would other paty insurers offer a valuation in first place to sons solicitor
sons head is totally baffled can anyone please offer any advice.

lisyloo

This sound like it's for the injuries and not for the car (I'm saying that on the basis that they have gone to the solicitor and not the insurance).
Is it simply the case that the injury solicitor has worked faster in this case than the insurer on the car repairs.

Where does the untraced drivers agreement come into it?
Is the other driver uninsured or untraceable?

jhe

the 3000 valuation is for injuries and the policy excess he had to pay to get car repaired, the valuation is from the other party insurance.
the solicitor was provided through his insurers to claim for the above.
the other driver must have spoken to insurers as they have,according to sons insurer tried to claim son reversed into them.sons insurers said from the outset if he was on main road and other party came out of side road son cant be at fault.
havnt a clue what the untraced driver is about, sorry dont have a great knowledge of insurance so am grateful for you taking the time to answer.
i dont understand why if the other party was spoken to, untraced driver agreement is mentioned
sons insurers are claiming from other party insurers for cost of repairs to his car.
how can other party insurer make a valuation in the circumstances?

lisyloo

The other party can make an offer for the injuries.
It's up to your sons solicitor to advise him on whether the offer is acceptable in what he can expect for his injuries. That's their job.
Usually an ofer from the other side will be on the low side as they would want to pay as little as possible, so it's up to your solicitor to advise you when to push for more and threaten to go to court and when to back down and accept.
That's exactly what they are supposed to do, offer legal advice.

jhe

thanks lisyloo. sons not too interested in the offer although he obviously wants his excess paid back, he is more concerned about losing his ncd and not being able to insure car, he just wants liabilty sorting with insurers,
since i first posted son has rang solicitor for an explanation.
solicitor had wrong registration of the other car, so solicitor has rang sons insurers who confirmed what i said above, concerning other party saying son reversed into them and the other party has suddenly found a witness 5 month on! so dont really understand whats going on with valuation offer or where its come from, all very strange to me.
solicitor has confirmation from police about other party leaving the scene of accident.
any idea how long this could take before a decision is made for liability or if need be the other party taken to court. 5 month seems a long time if no progress has been made.

lisyloo

Has your son asked the insurers what progress they are making?
Coming up with a witness 5 months on is clearly suspicious.
I would be asking them for a timescale in which they will take the other party to court to force the issue.
Be polite but assertive.
My Father-in-law had a claim that took 3 years to come to a conclusion, so your son needs to chase I'm afraid.

jhe

yes son has been asking insurers on and off for the last months for updates, all he has been told in the past is the other party claim he reversed into them, then this week when he rang for update he was told about this sudden witness that has appeared. both his insurers and his solicitor today said its suspicious.
think his insurers claim department and solicitor wont be able to be contacted over week end, will pass on your advice to son and he will have to ring them monday.
3 year is ridiculous! hope your father in law was succesfull.
thank you for your advice.

alistair.long

Hi,
A few things,
firstly the car was hit I dont know and you dont know only your son knows.

The other side has a witness and therefore your case is going to be hard to proove.

The other side can send a engineer out in the early days to check the damage and the expert will give his own version of what happened based on the evidence.
E.g the damage on the rear is consistant with a minor bump and was likly caused by x, or the damage caused on person b's car is extensive and does not correlate to persons a's version of events for ......

jhe

son had passengers in car at he time of accident
the witness took 5 month to appear?
as far as i am aware the other side didnt send an engineer out or if they did its never been mentioned, but i couldnt be 100% sure unless son asks insurance.
the bump caused around £4000 damage and bent his axle amongst other things i assume the £4000 also includes the hire car eventually supplied to him, he couldnt have driven car previous to the accident with the damage caused.
if what you say could be the case wouldnt he have been informed of the other partys evidence before 5 months?
thanks for replying, any advice gratefully received
why would anyone who was innocent leave the scene of an accident when they know the police are en route?
sons car was just over 1 year old at time of accident, he has had the car from new, always drove it careful and it was in showroom condition.

lisyloo

3 year is ridiculous! hope your father in law was succesfull.

Well the other side (a pedestrian) threatened court over personal injury.
It was a hollow threat but we had to wait 3 years becuase that's the time limit for going to court over injuries, so the insurer could not be sure about legal action until that expired.
Once it's expired, then yes, my FIL got his excess back.

The other side has a witness and therefore your case is going to be hard to proove.

I don't agree with this at all.
The witness has come forward after 5 months.
Why didn't they come forward initially.
Most likely explanation is that they have found someone willing to lie to protect them.
Any judge in court will be suspicious about the witness not being named up front and ask why they have appeared 5 months later.

The other side can send a engineer out in the early days to check the damage and the expert will give his own version of what happened based on the evidence.
E.g the damage on the rear is consistant with a minor bump and was likly caused by x, or the damage caused on person b's car is extensive and does not correlate to persons a's version of events for ......

This is true however we have to add a note of realism here.
They will not do forensics worthy of a murder investigation for a minor bump.
They will way up the assesors report the "evidence" and use their long experience to make a judgement.
They migh make each other offers e.g. 80%/20% liability.
This process of negotiating can take a long time.

I think the witness thing will be dealt with as suspicious by courts, the police and the insurers.
It's just another spanner in the works to amke things more difficult and put doubt in people's minds.

if what you say could be the case wouldnt he have been informed of the other partys evidence before 5 months?

The other side want to delay payment as long as possible.

why would anyone who was innocent leave the scene of an accident when they know the police are en route?

Another point not in his favour.
But sometimes there are explanations e.g. shock, feeling threatened, not having insurance, worried about domestic violence from owner of vehicle.
Some of these MAY be justified e.g. if you feel genuinely threatened.
I'm not trying to justify any reason, jsut answering your question.

Sorry if it's not what you want to hear.

jhe

Another point not in his favour.
But sometimes there are explanations e.g. shock, feeling threatened, not having insurance, worried about domestic violence from owner of vehicle.
Some of these MAY be justified e.g. if you feel genuinely threatened.
I'm not trying to justify any reason, jsut answering your question.

yes i am sure the other party will say they felt threatened or have some excuse, otherwise why else could they try to explain they left the scene
the other party was ranting and raving at son to begin with, when he pointed out to them they had hit his car, they came out of side road when he was driving past
they then admitted liability at the scene to son and offered to pay for damage, but that would be his word against theirs.
son insists he was calm and polite at all times to the other party, his passengers verified this.
thanks for taking the time to reply.
the accident happened very close to a police station so the police were on the scene within minutes of son phoning, the other party will have known this, not that i suppose that makes any difference.