Has anyone else endured a complicated personal injury claim following a car accident?

betsycoe

Hi everyone,
it a while since I've used the forum, but was hoping for an outside perspective on my situation.

In 2012 I was involved in a really serious head on car accident. Liability was not disputed (the idiot that went into me was on the wrong side of the road, there were witnesses and he was later convicted of driving without due care) and I sort of assumed there would be help out there for me.

After the accident I was off work for 10 months and racked up a lot of expense in terms of additional childcare (I have a young child), home help (I don't have a partner), travel to and from hospital, medical excesses, physio etc etc In fact at times it has felt like the costs are never ending!

Being unfamiliar with the whole claims process I assumed help would be available. However, 2 and a half years later I am still paying out for treatment and have yet to see a single penny back from the third party insurer (including a fairly hefty policy excess).

My solicitor has been really good and has been chasing the other side for an interim payment, but they are refusing to do so until all of the reports from the medical experts are completed (1 is complete, 2 are being written up and 2 more are scheduled). from experience it taks months to get the reports fully written up and at times it feels like I'm left suffering financially (and still receiving treatment) whilst insurers and lawyers ping pong and argue!

I was just wondering if anyone out there has been through this and come out of the otherside? How long did it eventually take to sort out and is there any way of forcing the issue of an interim payment?

OnanTheBarbarian

I deal with RTA PI claims for a living.

Each case really turns on its own facts and circumstances and some claims can take many years to reach a conclusion, much depending on the nature of injuries and waiting to see if the injured person is likely to make a complete recovery or not.

Insurers are a nuisance in a lot of respects and drag their heels wherever possible.

A lot also depends on the calibre of your solicitor. There is a time & a place for the nice guy routine and it works on some cases, yet on others it pays to be aggressive with the insurers.

Much will depend on how much the interim payment that is being requested is for.

if the insurer has not seen much in the way of medical reports that support the need for the care & assistance and other restrictions in your life that you have incurred losses for, they will be reluctant to hand over a large interim until they have seen some evidence.

But if you have say some leg fractures and an interim of £5k was being requested, the insurer is not in danger of paying more as an interim than the claim turns out to be worth and they should be pressed by your solicitor to pay a reasonable interim payment or an application will be made at court for a general interim payment.

betsycoe

Thanks for this. The feedback from my solicitor is that they want to release all of the medical reports at once. They have asked for a fairly sizeable interim payment (after taking advice from the barrister assigned to my case). However, the other side want all reports completing and to know the quantum before releasing a payment. My solicitor has argued that they can't give the quantum until all reports are in (but have confirmed that the interim payment is much lower than the quantum for one injury in isolation) but it appears they are at stalemate staright away! Very frustrating

OnanTheBarbarian

If you are a couple of weeks away from getting the medical evidence completed and ready to be served, it is probably pointless going on the offensive with an interim payment application to the court.

However, if it is likely to be some months before the medical evidence is complete, I would instruct your solicitor to look at filing an application for an interim payment due to your financial hardship.

If you solicitor says no, ask them why they feel it is not appropriate to do so.

Remember, you are the client, they act on your instructions, whilst also having an obligation to act in your best interests and provide clear and appropriate advice.

Given that this sounds like a fairly serious injury case with a potentially high value, it is a scenario where it is probably not running under the RTA claims portal and as such, your solicitor will not be working on a fixed fee.

So it is in your interests to go for the interim payment and in your solicitor's interests also to tear the backside out of this by doing lots of cost-bearing work where it is charged by the hour.

It is easy for me to comment from the sidelines knowing nothing about what is actually going on at the coalface on this claim, but I can't see why your solicitor is letting the insurers dictate things here.

InsideInsurance

If they are refusing to release any medical reports then it is fairly understandable that the insurers arent willing to consider any interim payments unless it is a small amount against something really simple like a broken limb rather than soft tissue issues or other things that can be more subjective/ "controversial"

Whilst anything injury related is going to be held up my medical reports, anything that is totally independent of that (eg your excess) should be able to be gotten back given liability isnt an issue. I appreciate it is probably token amounts in comparison to the whole but sometimes every little helps.

There can be good reasons why it may not be beneficial to release evidence as soon as its available but this strategy will understandably extend timelines.

betsycoe

Thanks both. I will catch up with my solicitor again. Their steer was that it can be beneficial from a negotiating stance to issue all evidence at once? I will certainly ask again though.

In terms of the portal, my claim exited that process a long time ago. It seems that the process works great for straight forward claims but as soon as you add in future medical needs/losses the timescales are never ending!

Crazy_Jamie

You've already been given the advice that you need from two members who have experience on the two respective sides of the process. Practically if the evidence is some months away from being finalised there is nothing to stop your solicitors negotiating a smaller interim payment in order to help you along with your day to day living costs. As has been said there will be elements of the claim that are not controversial, and whilst the barrister will no doubt have provided a figure that he thinks you could reasonably secure as an interim payment, it may be that you could get by for a little longer with less handed over to you.

The only advice for the process as a whole is to hang in there. Serious personal injury cases can be complex and time consuming, but it sounds like your solicitors are keeping things moving as best they can. You'll get there eventually.