Disagreeing with my appointed solicitor - reclaiming excess

iamashoppingaddict

oldbaldman wrote: »

There are probably people here with such experience?

Are you happy to answer specific questions here?

You have not said anything which would enable anyone to make an informed decision as to who was in the right or wrong, or where liability lies.

obm

No I haven't, mainly because I wanted a steer really how the relationship between myself and my legal expenses appointed solicitor worked.

That and the circumstances are much more annoying to explain than I've detailed above.

I've done numerous sketches, printed off google streetviews to draw on and written the circumstances down in various different ways. I suppose to a certain extent I'm fed up with repeating myself!! lol :rotfl:

iamashoppingaddict

Quentin wrote: »

Why not await the outcome of your solicitor's request for funding for court?


(Nothing to lose by waiting, and if they agree to fund a hearing there's always the chance it calls the other side's bluff who might want to go to court less than you appear to)

Yes I will thank you Quentin.

I think the solicitor just wants rid of me so that she can claim her fee to be honest. She's written more letters to me than she has the TP!!!

InsideInsurance

Do you know how much the damage to your car was? Presumably your personal losses are just the excess and no injuries?

By the sounds of it the case would go to small track (aka small claims court) and so the risk is pretty much just the actual losses plus the courts own fees but not any material solicitors fees.

The reality is that insurers and large corporations arent scared of court and so "fighting talk" in letters etc doesnt have the same impact as it would sending it to a small business etc. They do however make decisions on the economics of the situation and not just the principle and so if court papers arrive they may just pay up as the cost of defending a small claims action may well outweigh the settlement even if they won.

You do need to speak to your insurers should you decide to deal with the matter personally as technically their outlay should be included in any action

iamashoppingaddict

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Do you know how much the damage to your car was? Presumably your personal losses are just the excess and no injuries?

By the sounds of it the case would go to small track (aka small claims court) and so the risk is pretty much just the actual losses plus the courts own fees but not any material solicitors fees.

The reality is that insurers and large corporations arent scared of court and so "fighting talk" in letters etc doesnt have the same impact as it would sending it to a small business etc. They do however make decisions on the economics of the situation and not just the principle and so if court papers arrive they may just pay up as the cost of defending a small claims action may well outweigh the settlement even if they won.

You do need to speak to your insurers should you decide to deal with the matter personally as technically their outlay should be included in any action

I don't know to be honest. My OH is a mechanic and looked up the price of a new wing mirror and it was £300 before being painted so god knows how much a new door was!!! Its a BMW so I imagine not cheap. No injuries at all.

iamashoppingaddict

When the 50/50 was mentioned my solicitor said that she had consulted with my insurer who agreed apparently....?

Southend1

It's in insurers interests to push for 50/50. Both parties lose no claims bonus and 2 premiums to increase at renewal.

Why not go to court? I wonder if Tesco would even bother to send someone to defend it?

InsideInsurance

iamashoppingaddict wrote: »

I don't know to be honest. My OH is a mechanic and looked up the price of a new wing mirror and it was £300 before being painted so god knows how much a new door was!!! Its a BMW so I imagine not cheap. No injuries at all.

The BMW aspect is less of an issue unless it went to a BMW garage. Body parts are a bit more expensive than say a Ford equiv but not that much more as long as you compare like for like. Where you get stung is on labour rates and the fact that all these things are full of toys and gizmos which piles on the monies.


Your insurers almost certainly would quickly agree to 50/50 on a roundabout collision with contested circumstances and no witnesses. It along with narrow lane collisions are the most common to end up this way. In fact in my claims days both automatically went to the disputed liability team as soon as the claim was registered even if no comments were made that liab was in dispute.

loveduppaul

Hi,


I had a similar 'incident' as yourself, other party was 100% at fault as far as I was concerned, I was driving around the roundabout, HGV decided he wasn't going to stop at the line, bit of quick reactions to me caused only my side wing and wing mirror to get taken off, if I had taken the exit I wanted (and was signalling for) car would have been written off.


Was originally given carpenters as my solicitor, bit of a thing as I would expect the are not being paid with legal expense cover, I didn't have legal expense cover and was allocated them. Dreadful service, wanted to go 50:50 etc. Told them ok fine I will ask for another solicitor. Spoke to Hastings my insurer, they put me in touch with another solicitor, gave them diagrams etc. Initially they came back saying they weren't admitting liability, would I be prepared to go to court, said yes. Asked for a bit of other information and advised we were ready to go to court. TP suddenly settled, and got a cheque through the post for my excess.


I warn you this has taken well over a year to get to, its certainly not fast and now have to try and sort my no claims out.


Keep pushing, if you are not happy find another solicitor, or make a complaint. IF you haven't got a massive bill for credit hire, and personal injuries, you have more chance of them just accepting liability rather than going to court. my bill was around the 2.5k mark to fix my car, but it was just repairs, not credit hire or personal injury.


Anyway

[Deleted User]

If the driver drove off when he knew there had been an accident that is a criminal offence. That alone should strengthen your case significantly. Most commercial fleet vehicles have cameras now too, so there should be video. If they failed to keep it... Well, doesn't look good for them, destroying evidence that could have easily shown who was at fault. Your solicitor should be chasing all these angles for you.

Buy a camera for your own car too. They are well worth it considering the fairly low cost.

iamashoppingaddict

Just want to update this, as in no more updates!

Have had to chase the solicitor again this morning to find out what is going on. Its like she has got it in her head that its 50/50 (which I may well be) and that she doesn't want to really spend any time on it fighting my corner, which I believe she is meant to.

I'm getting the point where I might well phone Hastings (who are my broker) and ask for an alternative solicitor. Thoughts?