Legal cover for personal injury with house insurance. Will not take my claim

groanie

I was knocked down by a van and sustained broken limbs.
Driver is denying responsibility and police are not charging him.

I have 'legal cover for personal injury' with my house insurance. Contacted the insurance company who was quite rude and said that because of the above I did not have a case.

I believe I have a case. Is there any point in pursuing this?

Quentin

Assuming you mean any point in pursuing your case for compensation (if you mean should you pursue your legal cover over their rudeness, then certainly complain)


Try the no win no fee injury lawyers you can find on google and see if any of them will take your case on


If they won't, then consider getting proper legal advice from a solicitor and take it from there on whether to instruct your own solicitor to pursue this

groanie

What's the point of having legal cover as part of an insurance?
I suppose if driver was charged it would be easy.

Quentin

Your legal cover doesn't mean you will always get free legal representation


Read up in the policy and there will be a condition along the lines of "legal representation is only given if you have a reasonable chance of winning in court"

Aretnap

No insurer would offer people cover which amounted to a blank cheque to pursue doomed legal actions, regardless of the evidence, the law or the cost. Legal cover can be useful, but it's fair enough for the insurer to insist that your claim has to have a reasonable prospect of success before you can use it - the usual criterion is that you would have to have a better than 50/50 chance of winning (as judged by someone defined by the policy terms, possibly an independent assessor).

The fact that the police didn't charge the driver certainly doesn't help, but it shouldn't be the be all and end all of the decision. The police work to a criminal standard of proof (beyond reasonable doubt) - you would only have to show that the driver was to blame on a civil standard (balance of probabilities) to win your case.

What actually happened? What does the driver say happened? And are there any witnesses or similar to support either of you?

Crazy_Jamie

Quentin wrote: »

Try the no win no fee injury lawyers you can find on google and see if any of them will take your case on


If they won't, then consider getting proper legal advice from a solicitor and take it from there on whether to instruct your own solicitor to pursue this

These should be one and the same thing. If you're looking for legal representation on a 'no win no fee' basis you should go to a solicitor who accepts cases on that basis. Any solicitor that represents claimants in personal injury cases should be willing to act on the basis of a 'no win no fee' agreement.

However, the caveat is that a solicitor won't act for you on that basis unless they assess your case as having reasonable prospects of success, which is the same test that your legal expenses insurer will apply in deciding whether or not to fund your claim. Now at the best of times legal expenses insurers can be a little bit more pessimistic in that respect than claimant focused solicitors, but you should be aware that if the insurer doesn't believe your case has reasonable prospects, a solicitor may not either.