"without prejudice" reply from other persons insurance?

joeyjennings

So i had a crash in August, and cut a long story short someone went into the back of me at a round about without looking. its been months now and my solicitors and i are both in agreement that the other persons insurance are taking ages. I am certain this was not my fault, and my solictors have backed me all the way.. his insurance now rang my solictors on 21st saying that they would repair my car on a without prejudice basis... I now know what this means.. but why?
Why not just accept liability because its easier?
Why pay to fix my car if you STILL think you're in the right?
Is them doing this no prejudice fixing my car a GOOD sign? Are they likley to accept liability?

My solicitors said this is a good thing, as if they were determined to fight this they would have not offered to fix my car.. so they are looking to settle on something.. (still have no offerend me anything apart from fixing my car --- WHICH I HAVE ACCEPTED)

Any help here guys? All new to this (Sensible driver who has never had a crash lol)

Thanks everyone

Aretnap

Settling on a without prejudice basis allows them to dispute liability in the future should your claim be bigger than expected.

It may be that they're unwilling to accept liability because, for example, they've been unable to contact their own driver and get his side of the story (which would also account for the delay). If the repair costs are relatively small it may have reached the point where it's easiest and cheapest for them to pay them and be done with it, but doing it on a without prejudice basis means that they are reserving the right to say "actually we're not sure that it was our driver's fault after all" and put some more effort into contacting him should you put in a large personal injury claim as well.

If you just want your car fixing then as far as you're concerned them doing it on a without prejudice basis is as good as admitting liability - either way you get it fixed. If you also want to pursue a claim for injury or other consequential losses then the fact that they've offered to fix your car doesn't actually help you with that, but it doesn't hinder you either so you might as well take up the offer and get it fixed now.

stator

They're probably trying to pay for the car repair without opening the door for large personal injury claims.

dacouch

As aretnap suggests, it's almost certainly due to them not being able to contact their own driver (Hence the delay).

They're basically saying that from the damage you have received it would appear they're at fault but as they have not been able to contact their client they're prepared to pay for the repairs but they're reserving their full acceptance of liability.

P.S Your solicitor should be telling you this not a forum.

Crazy_Jamie

stator wrote: »

They're probably trying to pay for the car repair without opening the door for large personal injury claims.

This wouldn't work, as no solicitor would allow an insurer to simply a repair a vehicle on a without prejudice basis in full and final settlement of the claim. How and when the vehicle is repaired should not have a bearing on the personal injury element of the claim.

However, the one aspect that hasn't yet been mentioned is that the insurer may well be repairing the vehicle on a without prejudice basis in order to block off any potential credit hire claim. As such it could well be a damage limitation exercise. It does suggest that the insurer may well be considering a full admission of liability further down the line, but the decision to repair the vehicle is likely a practical one in that it limits a potential hire claim.