Why are they contacting me direct for injury claim and not going through my insurance?

Gasgirlnikki

I had a bump in 2017 (my fault). My insurance settled everything and I thought that was the end of it. Then in Dec 2018 I received a letter from a legal firm saying the other party were now claiming personal injury. I'm confused as to why they are contacting me direct at my home address and haven't gone through my insurance company? Isn't it my insurance company that would pay the injury claim? They want me to pay several hundreds of pounds to settle or will take me to court. Ive googled the legal firm and they seem to be a proper firm. Can anyone advise please? I've also since changed insurance companies from the one that handled the original crash, does this matter? Many thanks

chrisw

Send it unanswered to the original insurance company. They will deal with it.

motorguy

Gasgirlnikki wrote: »

I had a bump in 2017 (my fault). My insurance settled everything and I thought that was the end of it. Then in Dec 2018 I received a letter from a legal firm saying the other party were now claiming personal injury. I'm confused as to why they are contacting me direct at my home address and haven't gone through my insurance company? Isn't it my insurance company that would pay the injury claim? They want me to pay several hundreds of pounds to settle or will take me to court. Ive googled the legal firm and they seem to be a proper firm. Can anyone advise please? I've also since changed insurance companies from the one that handled the original crash, does this matter? Many thanks

Because although the insurance company is going to pay for it, the person is claiming off you, therefore all correspondence must go directly to you. Just pass it immediately to your insurance company.

Aretnap

For some reason - either because your insurers are arguing over the size of the claim or because the overworked claims department is just being slow - your insurers haven't paid yet. So the third party has decided to threaten court action to get things moving. Ultimately if the third party and your insurer can't agree a settlement then the only way to force the issue would be to go to court.

Now in the event of a court claim, it would have to be made against you personally, because you're the one who (allegedly) caused the injury, so ultimately you are the one liable. The other driver can't sue your insurance company directly because he isn't claiming that your insurance company caused the accident. Instead he issues a claim against you, and you ask your insurer to deal with it on your behalf, in accordance with the terms of your policy. Hence you're the one getting the letters.

As above, forward all the documents to the insurance company you were with at the time of the accident and don't attempt to deal with it yourself. It's also a good idea to phone them and make sure that they're aware and dealing with it. It's unlikely that it will actually get as far as a courtroom, but rest assured that if it does it will still be your insurance company putting their hand in their pocket at the end of the day, not you personally.

Gasgirlnikki

Thank you for your replies, I will forward the letters to the insurance company as you all advise

missile

I hope you have a good insurer?

Be aware if your insurers are tardy, the 3rd party can take you to court. I had to do that when my car was damaged and Hastings Direct were dragging their feet.

Car_54

missile wrote: »

I hope you have a good insurer?

Be aware if your insurers are tardy, the 3rd party can take you to court. I had to do that when my car was damaged and Hastings Direct were dragging their feet.

OP, even with the best insurer in the world you may be "taken to court". Just because the TP has made a personal injury claim doesn't mean your insurer will roll over and pay the amount claimed. These things are usually settled by negotiation, but may end up in court. However, as liability is not in dispute you should not have to attend.