50/50 Car accident insurance offer

Anaida9999

Hi,

I had a car accident with a lorry on the M6 last year. I was driving in my lane when the lorry came into my lane and hit the front of my car. I believe the lorry driver was not looking or there was a blind spot and thats why he hit my car. Definitely not my fault at all but the other side does not admit blame.


There is a diagram of what happened



this is on the flickr website but i cannot post the link as it does not let me just add the
front of the flickr address

photos/159926310@N03/47455665452/in/dateposted-public/



photos/159926310@N03/46784675844/in/dateposted-public/


I have a court date in the summer but the other sides solicitors have offered me 50/50 on the terms below should I accept this or pursue it all the way to court. This the first accident I have had in 17 years of driving so not sure what to do. The cost of my repairs was £700 so not a huge amount.
Thanks for reading and any advice provided

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A 50/50 split liability offer essentially has the following consequences, if it were to be accepted:


1.It would form a concluded agreement on liability that you would not be able to re-open at a later date no matter what the circumstances;


2.You would be able to recover 50% of your losses from the third party’s insurers.



3.It is likely that your own insurers would pay 50% of the third party’s claim. This would mean that any no-claims discount to which you might be entitled would be adversely affected unless you have the benefit of no claims bonus protection in which event you would lose one ‘life’.These types of cases are not settled on the basis of “who is telling the truth”, they are settled on the principal of “the balance of probabilities” and which party has, on balance, the most plausible version of events. This translates as which evidence the Judge prefers on the day and is, in many respects, a lottery and unfortunately because of the lack of independent evidence provided by either party, as much as there is a chance that you could win in full, you could just as likely lose in full.

Quentin

You should forward this letter unanswered to your insurer to deal with

lisyloo

Do you have any independent witnesses?
CCTV?

If there is no independent evidence and only the 2 accounts then it’s likely to go 50/50 but up to the insurer.

You could consider a dash cam or two/three (not sure how much angle the cover).

Anaida9999

Hi

Thanks for replying.
No there were no witnesses or CCTV, I do have a camera now but not before.
I will send the letter to my insurers but I dont know if I should accept the 50/50 offer but will see what the insurer says.

Quentin

Anaida9999 wrote: »

........but I dont know if I should accept the 50/50 offer but will see what the insurer says.

Your insurer (or their legal team) will advise you on this. (Assuming that your insurer has decided to pursue the court action)

[Deleted User]

What about the lorry? Many commercial vehicles, especially lorries, have dashcams now.

Quentin is right though, send it to your insurer and let them deal with it.