bodily injury claim to MIB. Do I get a solicitor or not?

damianomigani

About a month ago i was involved in a Hit and Run accident on my motorcycle. An uninsured (and probably stolen) car hit me head on, I flew over the windshield, cracked screen and landed on the roof and fell on the side. The driver didn't stop, fled the scene and abandoned the car nearby. My bike is totaled and i suffered minor injuries (nothing permanent). since the car is uninsured i will claim against MIB for vehicle and bodily damages. Although the impact was very violent and damage to the vehicles substantial, I luckily suffered relatively low injuries. I did hit my head and the helmet is damaged, but i was checked at the hospital and i am fine, got few bruises and general pain but overall i'm OK.
I am undecided whether I should hire a solicitor for bodily injury claim. They work on no win no fee basis and will take 25% of the success fee and I am not sure it's worth to go through them.. will they be able to get a much larger return than if I go at it alone?
Has anyone been in a similar situation? what was your experience, do you have any advice?
Thank you
Damiano

OnanTheBarbarian

I deal with RTA clsims for a living. MIB can be tight with their valuation of injury claims and often need a shove to increase to a more appropriate award.

Having said that there is a review procedure and subsequent appeal process used on the untraced driver claims.

Difficult to say therefore in the net outcome to you would be better once a lawyer has scooped 25% from the settlement.

I would say submit a claim in person first and consider seeking advice further down the line if needs be, or find a lawyer who does not deduct a success fee. Presumably you don't have legal cover or union membership?

damianomigani

thank you! i decided to ditch solicitor and go at it myself. will update when it's all over.

Techy_girl

damianomigani wrote: »

thank you! i decided to ditch solicitor and go at it myself. will update when it's all over.

Hi -Any update? how long did your process take? was it complicated?

damianomigani

Hi yes actually!
i decided not to hire a solicitor in the end. The process was not too complicated, just a bit lengthy..
From accident date till receiving my compensation it must have been around 10 months.
After claiming with MIB, they assigned an agent that did the investigation. I was sent for a physical evaluation and a mental evaluation in the following 2-3 months after submission of the claim. Then I had an insurance engineer come and evaluate the damage to my vehicle. I was pretty satisfied with MIB throughout the whole process. They are communicative, efficient and can got more than expected in the end. Overall i got around 7k for the vehicle (it was worth around 3k, since it was about 8 year old bike) and another 7k for mental and physical damages, which i think was generous.

So unless your physical damages were very significant (i hope not!) i would recommend just following the process with MIB.
If you have any questions on the process, i'll be happy to answer them..

Damiano

Techy_girl

damianomigani wrote: »

So unless your physical damages were very significant (i hope not!) i would recommend just following the process with MIB.

Thanks for the update, no 2 outcomes and experience will be the same but having some idea of a process lessons the emotional and financial hell of being hit by an irresponsible driver...I'm happy you got help via MIB and was reasonably compensated.

I've gone with a solicitor and was panicking as I'm still very much in this mess and quite frankly I'm functionally depressed I don't think I have the strength to go through the claim on my own ... getting up and dressed is daily war I'm losing. Unfortunately the solicitor is already aiming to charge £3000 (no win no fee CFA plus she wants a 15% success fee) and MIB hasn't accepted or declined yet.

I don't find her "expected" charges acceptable as its 3x her quote and she knew my injures before I was called in for MRI she met me when I was still hobbling.

I think having both our experiences on here will hopefully help others.

My situation...I'm a cyclist ... I got hit by an uninsured driver 2mths ago, he turned into me from his junction, he didn't stop (i was on the main road ) he admitted that he was at fault at the time. Police and ambulance came ...I was taken to hospital, he wasn't charged... no points ... no fine...the police said he's a good guy - if its more than a sprain I could just put in a claim with his insurance...(he showed papers to police at the time that indicated he was insured turns out he missed a payment (his Christmas and New year expenditure was more important I guess)...

If the police wasn't there I would have been shown the same papers and believed he was insured.

My injuries was and is being treated and monitored by my doctor and hospital consultant. I've lost my contract at work, my agency is trying to place me elsewhere minus stairs but I'm now not working and not entitled to sick pay (zero hour contract).

Ankle joint isn't healing like we all hoped... it keeps visibly blowing up with fluid after 5 mins "walking" and knee feels like it wants to buckle ... MRI isn't good... we're going discuss it this week and my social network is all sports and outdoors is now to hell... so yeah right now I'm not doing so well.

Knowing how long it took to sort out does help, it forces me to have plan to deal with my mental and physical situation just in case a) I need an operation b) my agency doesn't place me. I need to not to fall into debt whilst going through this.

Thanks again - I'll update with my end experience when I can.

damianomigani

sorry to hear and i have two questions/comments

1) I understand that your solicitor is planning on getting compensation from MIB, question is: why?
MIB is to compensate uninsured/undersinured motorists or like in my case hit and run. If the driver was identified and has insurance, they should be compensating you, not MIB. Is the fact that he missed that single payment make his policy invalid?

2) I am sure you can negotiate solicitor fees, especially if they inflated the fees after the intial quote. Otherwise there plenty other solicitors. I chose not to go with one because the claim process at MIB seemed quite straight forward, I just wrote a statement describing what happened in detail and then they handled the rest including setting up appointments with various doctors to have me checked up.

Best of luck with your health and claim!

Damiano

smiffers

Hi there.
I have recently been in a road accident not my fault.
I have just had some one phone me saying he was from Insurance Advice Bureau, as part of "dont get mugged" campaign, and is a government body.
He said they get more compensation and quicker then soliciters provided by my insurers.

I have only been able to find out about it on theyre own website.

Can anyone tell me if they are ligit please?
Thankyou in advance

Ebe_Scrooge

smiffers wrote: »

Hi there.
I have recently been in a road accident not my fault.
I have just had some one phone me saying he was from Insurance Advice Bureau, as part of "dont get mugged" campaign, and is a government body.
He said they get more compensation and quicker then soliciters provided by my insurers.

I have only been able to find out about it on theyre own website.

Can anyone tell me if they are ligit please?
Thankyou in advance

See the replies to your other post on this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5792853/dont-get-mugged-by-your-insurer

Techy_girl

Hi -sorry for the delay in getting back on here
Regarding your questions:

damianomigani wrote: »

sorry to hear and i have two questions/comments
1) I understand that your solicitor is planning on getting compensation from MIB, question is: why?
MIB is to compensate uninsured/undersinured motorists or like in my case hit and run. If the driver was identified and has insurance, they should be compensating you, not MIB. Is the fact that he missed that single payment make his policy invalid?

Regarding MIB - they exist because of uninsured motorist, anyone one can claim... its not just for motorist. If your dog was hit by an uninsured motorist and you had to pay funeral you could even claim for that.

YES his policy was invalidated for the missed payment hence the application to proceed to MIB

damianomigani wrote: »

2) I am sure you can negotiate solicitor fees, especially if they inflated the fees after the intial quote. Otherwise there plenty other solicitors. I chose not to go with one because the claim process at MIB seemed quite straight forward, I just wrote a statement describing what happened in detail and then they handled the rest including setting up appointments with various doctors to have me checked up.

Thanks -

Techy_girl

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

smiffers wrote: »

Hi there.
I have only been able to find out about it on theyre own website.

You've kind of answered your own question... good or bad why would you goo with someone you haven't heard of ? ... in hindsight I wish I had checked out my solicitor via trustpilot and google reviews before I had chosen them.