Rear-ended by another driver - they are disputing the claim

Jumblebumble

jsj25 wrote: »

I have! Sent them about twice as much as I've written on here. :eek:

At what stage does common sense have to take over, though? Reversed back into a busy roundabout? Seriously? Can people really just get off lightly from claims like this by disputing facts which fly in the face of common sense?

It happens and some people are imbeciles
A driver went into the side of our car when we were on a roundabout by not stopping at a give way
They told their insurers that my named driver must have gone around the roundabout the wrong way despite knowing that i had a dash-cam
Really Odd behaviour which a single letter from a solicitor soon altered.
You may want to do the same as our "friend " was prepared to lie to an insurance company but seemed to have no appetite for lying to a court

jsj25

Jumblebumble wrote: »

It happens and some people are imbeciles
A driver went into the side of our car when we were on a roundabout by not stopping at a give way
They told their insurers that my named driver must have gone around the roundabout the wrong way despite knowing that i had a dash-cam
Really Odd behaviour which a single letter from a solicitor soon altered.
You may want to do the same as our "friend " was prepared to lie to an insurance company but seemed to have no appetite for lying to a court

My insurance company called me today (they'd texted me to ask how I thought their service was and didn't give them a great score!) and we ended up discussing things a bit further. When I asked them how they could seriously give consideration to a claim as ludicrous as this, they said, "Well, people drive out from side roads into oncoming traffic all the time. So unlikely things do happen." Very reassuring. :wall:

I did mention that if they chose to settle for 50/50 I might consider a legal option, but I don't know that I'd actually be willing to fork out extra money on a solicitor if there's a risk I might lose. If it went that far, would a court be more open to using balance of probability to decide a case than insurance companies? Or if the other driver lies in court and I have no way to disprove it, is there just no chance of winning?

Quentin

How can a judge decide who is telling the truth when neither side have a witness?!

You agreed to allow your insurer to deal with claims as they think fit.

So what sort of legal action are you considering?

jsj25

Hi guys,

A slight update. Phoned my insurers a fortnight ago as I hadn't heard anything about this case and, to my surprise, they told me that the other insurers had failed to communicate with them since May even though they were disputing liability. My insurers pressed the other insurers for an update and received no response until they verbally re-confirmed today that they are still holding me to blame and are disputing the repair charges.

My insurers have said that, based on the evidence I've sent in and the circumstances of the incident, they are happy to refer the case to their solicitors for further review. They are also sending the first of three "strike" letters, which notifies the other insurers of our intent to issue legal proceedings - in each instance, they have two weeks to respond. They admitted it's a scare tactic designed to pressure them to settle, as there's the risk that their solicitors could decide there isn't enough to take this to court.

Now, I have zero experience with this kind of thing. I know it's all in the hands of my insurers, but I'm still in a kind of limbo state and wanted to see what your better-informed opinions were. I'm pleased my insurers are indicating their intent to go to court (whether they actually would or not remains to be seen), especially since they originally suggested they'd be likely to settle for 50/50. In general, though, is this scare tactic something which works and forces the other insurers to pay up? Or is it customary for these letters to be ignored (which the other insurers have done with everything else to date) and wait to go to court?

csgohan4

For future readers, if you don't have a dash cam get one, even a forward facing one is better than nothing. They are cheap and you don't need spend more than 60 quid or so.