Urgent!! Please help. Court claim because my insurers have not completed settlement

elaine373

Please move if this post is in the wrong section.

I will try to make this post as short as possible.

Last year in September I was involved in a car accident which was deemed as my fault. (I disagree but couldn't prove it) as far as I was concerned, settlement was made by my insurers to the third party for damages.
Last week I received a letter from a solicitors saying that I was going to be legally pursued for damages and as soon as I received the court papers I was to send them off to my insurers,. Obviously I was shocked and immediately contacted my insurers, long story short they said they called the insurers and settlement had not been paid because the third party insurers had ceased to reply to letters from my insurer. They said that they had spoke to the solicitors and had asked for all paperwork to be sent ,so that settlement could be completed.
Today I have received a claim form from the court stating that I am being chased for nearly £2000 for damages to the third party.
I have emailed my insurers again but am frankly so upset and unsure what to do.
My insurers say that they will cover costs but I only have their word for that which has proved to be unreliable and I also only have a few days to respond to this legal claim.
Please help.

Foxy-Stoat_3

Send the papers unanswered to your insurers, by next day registered post and keep a copy of your correspondence.

elaine373

I have just spoke to my insurers again, who says payment was made yesterday to the third party via solicitors. That will take a few days to go through before they receive it.My insurers had also received the court claim copy but says it's just crossed over. I have asked for confirmation of settlement and am wondering if I should photocopy it and send back with court papers? What do you think? Thanks for your help.

InsideInsurance

You just forward the papers to your insurer unanswered or do whatever they instruct you to do with them.

There is a whole host of reasons why RTAs end up in court, if there is a solicitor involved then they are keen for it to do so as their fees go up, so its nothing to worry about nor automatically means your insurers have done anything wrong

Remember legally its you -v- the other driver even if your insurers do everything for you so hence the court papers come to you

elaine373

I am struggling to understand why it ended up be a court matter. My insurers closed the case previously because they hadn't heard from the other party's insurer. It was nothing to do with anything I or my insurers had done. I guess I am taking this all too personally. Just think the solicitor could have given me the chance to spot there had been a problem before going to court.
Will I get any further letters to say that the matter is resolved, either from the solicitors or the court?

arcon5

Don't take it personally. Legally your the defendant but really sound like they only wanted the insurer involved - despite it being a mess caused by the claimants insurer.

don't just ignore though, follow up to ensure the court case is closed.

InsideInsurance

elaine373 wrote: »

I am struggling to understand why it ended up be a court matter.

The exact rules have changed since my day in claims but back then the fees the solicitor could claim for a fast track level injury case would jump up massively if they "had" to litigate. Given solicitor firms are profit making and not charitable in nature its in their interest to try and get the case into litigation as it creates very little extra work but significantly increases their revenue.

OnanTheBarbarian

InsideInsurance wrote: »

The exact rules have changed since my day in claims but back then the fees the solicitor could claim for a fast track level injury case would jump up massively if they "had" to litigate. Given solicitor firms are profit making and not charitable in nature its in their interest to try and get the case into litigation as it creates very little extra work but significantly increases their revenue.

It's a rather barren waste land now as far as litigation costs are concerned. Gone are the days of the solicitor just sat with the meter running at £150+ per hour and sleep walking a case to a hearing.

It is all fixed fee now and pretty lousy at that.

The reason why the OP got landed with proceedings is most likely her own insurers inability to respond in a timely fashion. This is nothing strange and it is situations like this that usually are the only way of getting an insurer to get off their backside and find their cheque book. I speak from daily experience of this situation, warnings after warnings which eventually result in the policyholder with a county court claim form on their door mat.

To the OP, just make sure you ask for confirmation that your insurers solicitors have either received a copy of a Notice of Discontinuance or a copy of a letter the Claimant's solicitors have sent to the court confirming settlement has been agreed.

If the sum being claimed was only £2k and there was no PI involved, then this was a small claims adventure and the solicitors costs would have been a whopping £80.

RMS2

elaine373 wrote: »

I am struggling to understand why it ended up be a court matter.

Erm, the accident was your fault (whys and wherefores don't matter) and your insurance company hasn't paid up.


So the other side have moved things along, by getting a solicitor to mount a county court claim.


If your insurers get off of their **** and pay up, it will all go away.


Mumbling about a letter from the other insurers and hoping to keep the money isn't going to work, tell them to pull their finger out and pay up.

arcon5

Well if you read the op she clearly states the victims insurer was the one who failed to respond to correspondence from ops insurer. So at least read it before jumping down ops throat just because she has legitimate confusion as to how this got to the stage of a county court claim rather than being settled amicably a long time ago.

InsideInsurance

OnanTheBarbarian wrote: »

It is all fixed fee now and pretty lousy at that.

Assuming their is PI/ Fast Track, is the fixed fee identical if its settled pre-litigation or post? I'd be surprised if there was no uplift but its been too long since I was last involved