Insurance claim court proceedings

confusedcustomer1

Hi all,

 I had an accident a few months ago which was my fault.

Whilst reversing out of my parking space, I bumped into a vehicle which was parked behind me (driver was inside). I accepted liability for the accident as it was my fault and I assumed that the claim against my insurer would be sorted out pretty quickly.

However, the driver of vehicle put in a claim for damage AND personal injury. The claim for the damage has been accepted, but my insurer is disputing the claim for personal injury as the collision took place at a speed of less than 5mph and the driver did not complain of any injuries at the time of the accident. There were also no witnesses to the accident and no CCTV evidence.

 The third party insurers are now taking the dispute court. The solicitors acting on behalf of my insurer have asked me if I am willing to provide evidence at court but I am unsure about whether I should agree to this or not.

Should I attend court, or should I just provide a written statement?

What will happen if the claim for personal injury is accepted? Will the additional personal injury claim have an effect on my insurance costs in the future?

Thank you.

AdrianC

Yes, you should agree. Why wouldn't you? They're taking the michael, lying to get money from your insurer.

In practice, it's very unlikely to actually get to court. This lying liar will simply not risk it. They're probably wishing it'd never got this far, since they were just hoping for some free money, and have seen this escalate...

I'm glad insurers are taking this seriously - because it adds to EVERYBODY's premiums. But it won't make any specific difference to yours.

foxy-stoat

You have to assist your insurers, it will be a term of the policy.  "Court" will just be a room with solicitors on both sides and drivers along with 1 or 2 other persons.

Your insurance will be affected due to the fault claim against you, the amount, unless its in the millions wont have any relevance in future.  You just need to advise future insurers of the approximate amount.

waamo

Check your insurance policy. If you refuse it's possible that your insurance company will chase you for any payout. That could work out a bit expensive.

confusedcustomer1

Thank you all, I will agree to attend. It seems that I could be pursued for any loses if I don’t cooperate. 

sweetsand

Dear OP
Sorry to hear about your woes and the car you crashed into, by what you said, I can see your concerns.
Contact your insurance co and ask them as follws
1 - do i need to go and if not what impact does this have on my insurance.
2- if i don't go the person wins, who pays
3- can i send a written statment and how would my insurance view this if we won the case or lost.
4- what are your recommedations if possible
If I was unlicky enough to be you, I consult as above and either way gve a written statement, EG,  - when I got out of the car and had a chat with x he/she appeared to be able bodied and not once compalin of any pains or truma. Indeed pain can come later but its what you saw, witnessed - keep it simple, keep it consice, keep it factual and if you are pulled up on your short stamtent be preared that you can expalin what you said.

so call them and test the water, you should be ok either way but i feel for you
What you do is up to you and I hope it gets sorted soon.

Sandtree

confusedcustomer1 said:

 The third party insurers are now taking the dispute court. The solicitors acting on behalf of my insurer have asked me if I am willing to provide evidence at court but I am unsure about whether I should agree to this or not.

Should I attend court, or should I just provide a written statement?

What will happen if the claim for personal injury is accepted? Will the additional personal injury claim have an effect on my insurance costs in the future?

The third party insurers won't be the ones taking the matter to court, they themselves are only interested in the damage to their insured's vehicle and as you say that aspect is not in dispute.   

If the dispute about the injury cannot be settled out of court then in theory the TPI's payments for repairs would also have to be included in the case as you can only go to court once for one incident however normally insurers agree between themselves to exclude their outlay and to follow the courts decision as to avoid increasing the legal costs (unless the amount is in dispute). In these circumstances though given overall liability is undisputed I'd expect there to be no TPI involvement beyond possibly providing insurance against the legal costs under a Legal Expenses add on.

You should do what your insurance company/their solicitors/barrister suggests. It may be you need to turn up in person it may be written testimony is sufficient. When children arent involved (which adds additional issues) its rare for a claim to ever actually get into the court room (and as mentioned its a meeting room not a TV drama court room in most cases).

Most insurance companies are fairly binary... you've had a fault claim or you haven't, its really down to luck if the TP is an old banger thats written off for £500 or a celebrity who suffers modest injuries and claims vast sums for loss of earnings. There are a minority who are interested in either injury or no injury and/or total cost of the claim but cannot say how much it moves the premium for them as they are already outliers 

Mercdriver

sweetsand said:

Dear OP
Sorry to hear about your woes and the car you crashed into, by what you said, I can see your concerns.
Contact your insurance co and ask them as follws
1 - do i need to go and if not what impact does this have on my insurance.
2- if i don't go the person wins, who pays
3- can i send a written statment and how would my insurance view this if we won the case or lost.
4- what are your recommedations if possible
If I was unlicky enough to be you, I consult as above and either way gve a written statement, EG,  - when I got out of the car and had a chat with x he/she appeared to be able bodied and not once compalin of any pains or truma. Indeed pain can come later but its what you saw, witnessed - keep it simple, keep it consice, keep it factual and if you are pulled up on your short stamtent be preared that you can expalin what you said.

so call them and test the water, you should be ok either way but i feel for you
What you do is up to you and I hope it gets sorted soon.

Better still, the OP should ignore the above and consult his terms and conditions.  If he does not give evidence, there could well be severe ramifications.  There's no good reason to decline to assist.  

foxy-stoat

One last thing, probably best you don't say that you admitted liability at the scene.

Good luck and report back on the result, hopefully they wont get away with claiming large injury claims.

ElefantEd

foxy-stoat said:

One last thing, probably best you don't say that you admitted liability at the scene.

Good luck and report back on the result, hopefully they wont get away with claiming large injury claims.

I know that insurance companies tell you not to admit liability at the scene. But surely if you did so, there is no reason not to say so in court. If anything, this will show youas an honest person so the court is more likely to give weight to your testimony. The OP only admitted that they were at fault for the accident - and clearly they were if they reversed into a stationary vehicle - not that they injured the other driver.

AdrianC

foxy-stoat said:

One last thing, probably best you don't say that you admitted liability at the scene.

Liability for the collision is not in any doubt here.

The question is over whether there were injuries caused by it or not.