Car Insurance - Fault Allocation on a claim.

Selidie

Hi All,

I have not posted much on here before but am hoping someone can help me out / advise or otherwise give some info on an ongoing insurance claim relating to my daughter.

So, the background is, last year my daughter was involved in a collision at a set of traffic lights.  She, her partner and witnesses at the time said her light was green.  She is quite young and had her son in the car who has Downs Syndrome, so was very much in shock at the time of the accident.  Police were involved at the scene and the details went to her insurance company, including the details of at least one witness.  There was at least one other witness that we know of whos details were provided to the police at the time.

This has gone on for some time now and unfortunately the witness on she had has not responded to attempted contact by the insurance company and they have told my daughter they cannot contact police for details of the other witness.  This had resulted in the insurance company going for a 50/50 claim with the 3rd parties insurance,  much to our disgust but given the lack of witness response and apparent lack of any CCTV, its hard to challenge that.  However, her insurance is due renewal in a month or so and she has been looking into getting quotes, so she contacted her insurance today for an update.  They have told her that the 3rd party insurance has rejected the 50/50 claim and as such they (her insurance) have accepted fault on her side and are going to be paying out in full.  This seems incredibly unjust to me and I cannot understand how it can be deemed entirely her fault just because the 3rd party insurer rejects the 50/50 claim.

I suppose the questions I have are:

1) I assume the 3rd party MUST have evidence or independant witness statements to support his 'non fault' claim, and as such her insurer should have the detail of that evidence?

2) Is there anything we can do to challenge it and is it really worth the effort?  It goes against the grain for me to just accept it, as I feel that is the fundamental reason why so many people get 'screwed' over by these companies .

3) If there is no evidence as per point 1, should it be 50/50 by default as neither side can prove they were not at fault.

I may be a bit synical, but this feels to me like the 3rd party had legal cover and my daughter may not have (I am checking that) so they have just applied legal pressure to her insurer to get a positive result!

Any info, pointer or comments are welcome

Thanks

rs65

Selidie said:

1) I assume the 3rd party MUST have evidence or independant witness statements to support his 'non fault' claim, and as such her insurer should have the detail of that evidence?

2) Is there anything we can do to challenge it and is it really worth the effort?  It goes against the grain for me to just accept it, as I feel that is the fundamental reason why so many people get 'screwed' over by these companies .

3) If there is no evidence as per point 1, should it be 50/50 by default as neither side can prove they were not at fault.

I may be a bit synical, but this feels to me like the 3rd party had legal cover and my daughter may not have (I am checking that) so they have just applied legal pressure to her insurer to get a positive result!

1) why assume - get her to ask her insurer
2) yes, make a complaint.  a 50/50 settlement seems ok in the circumstances.  100% means she cannot recover any of her losses such as excess
3) not by default, but seems the likely outcome

Having legal cover makes no difference. Both insurers have deep pockets for legal pressure 

Selidie

Thanks, Ive done a bit more digging and it seems her insurer have told her that they have admitted liability due to the 3rd party saying they will take it to court and she doesn't have legal cover on her policy.  With the only likely outcome being 50/50 (based on the current information) it sounds to me like they are just taking the path of least resistance due to the lack of eveidence either way, and they are not prepared to fund any legal costs.  I will see if she will challenge the insurer, or give me authority ot deal on her behalf to see what we can find out.