Car insurance claim, previous occupier named on the court papers?

forgotmyname

Hope someone can offer some advice.

Trying to help someone with their car insurance claim which is going to court soon, maybe a video link?

Vehicle crashed into the rear of their car as they were waiting to pull out of a junction.

Along with 30 pages of car hire prices where they dispute the credit hire prices are details of previous residents

accidents. Full names, vehicle data, hospital data and the claim amounts and settled amounts.  These accidents

which relate to the previous residents are betwen 4 and 9 years before this person moved in so have no link

at all to the accidents listed. 

Is this normal or are they trying to claim they have had more accidents than declared when this incident happened?

Also is it normal for the insurance company to be on the court claim rather than the 3rd party driver that caused the

accident?

Seems the insurer of the 3rd party is one that does not like paying out and the claimants solicitor is slow and

not very helpful, 3rd solicitor on the case from the same firm.

Thanks.

Sandtree

So... you've had a non-fault accident and used credit hire. There is a dispute of some sort and therefore your representatives have issued proceedings. Someone has sent you 30 pages of stuff that appears to divulge other peoples personal data.

Firstly, is liability in dispute or just quantum/the amount?
Secondly, have the repairs been settled by the third party or did you have credit repairs as well?
Thirdly, are there any personal injury claims going along with this?

You wouldnt simply receive 30 pages of data from anyone, or at least you certainly shouldnt. It would therefore be good to know who actually set you this information pack (your solicitors,  the third party's representatives or the court)? Plus what did any covering letter state? 

forgotmyname

Its actually 394 pages.... Court paperwork.  Yes an injury claim and the car was repaired almost 2 years ago now

this had taken that long.  Long story but they initially disputed over whether the driver was actually covered due

to it being a hire or lease vehicle.  But its the insurers name on the paperwork not the actual driver?

They didnt know who the driver was yet his name was on the letter where they denied knowing who he was?

Only one dodgy picture of their vehicle almost 8 weeks after the incident where they had obviously fixed the front damage

or partially fixed it hence the poor pictures at a funny angle and from a distance. Other undeclared damage they have

supplied paperwork with repaire costs even though they state this was nothing to do with this incident. Why send that

info also?

Just helping them make notes so they dont forget stuff on the day.  Like the hire car yes its cheaper assuming you knew

you needed it for the number of days and had £1000 to pay upfront and a credit card which the driver does not have.

Approx 30 pages of car hire prices from several car hire places, pages of vans for hire also. Seems to be a case if this

file looks a bit thin lets pad it out.

I was more curious as to why they included full details of accidents from someone that lived in a property years

before the claimant moved in. Sounded very odd to me, especially as it was under the claimants accident history.

More padding and trying to make it look like the claimant has had more accidents? Or is that normal?  3rd party

insurer supplied this paperwork.

Thanks.

[Deleted User]

Send it all to your insurance company. That's what you pay them for, they are the ones who need to deal with this.

If they sent you other people's details it is a potential Data Protection violation and you might think about reporting it to the ICO, or the victims if you are able to contact them.

forgotmyname

I was just on the phone to them and their solicitor have not contacted them again (Wednesday), court date is this Friday

they do not know if its an online video thing or whether they need to attend.

When they moved into the Council property the previous person named on one of the accidents had left all their

furniture behind and even their car was parked outside for months until it was towed away. 

Still gets letters for them almost 2 years on, despite sending them back as no longer at this address.

Thanks

Sandtree

[DELETED USER] said:

Send it all to your insurance company. That's what you pay them for, they are the ones who need to deal with this.

If they sent you other people's details it is a potential Data Protection violation and you might think about reporting it to the ICO, or the victims if you are able to contact them.

The OP is the claimant and has a personal injury claim and so its more relevant to speak to their solicitors than send it to the insurers. 

Its not abundantly clear what the pack is, at a guess its the defendant's witness statement and supporting evidence but you would have to actually read the statement that will cover what the supporting evidence is and how they feel it supports their position. I would similarly not recommend going to the ICO and certainly not the people named until speaking to the solicitors. Whilst not obvious as to what the relevance is given this is a court case for the OP's benefit (getting settlement for their injuries etc) you dont want to be causing potential delays etc by pulling in other parties.

forgotmyname

I may have more questions later, seems it was a shambles from the start.

3rd party claim they are not the insurer, judge asked them why this was not sorted before it came to court?

Paused the live link so the judge and legal teams could discuss matters. 2 years and this is what they take

to court?

Still no idea whether it was a standard hire car or a lease of some sort?  Although they claim to have no

knowledge they know the driver was not named on the insurance?  So why did they not give the drivers details

or the other insurance details? 

Anyone had similar issues from either side?

Thanks

Sandtree

Have been involved in and heard of many very messy cases... even bought corporate insurance to cover the risk of very messy cases. You can get mistaken identity, uninsured drivers, stolen vehicles, cloned plates, indemnity issues etc which can all add to the fun of case handling

Based on the posts here it is unclear exactly whats going on in your case. There would need to be a much clearer post on the history of the incident to try and unpick it.  In my experience credit hire companies are not the most meticulous and so making a pigs ear of it is no major surprise (obviously 95% of cases go straight through without significant debate).

At a guess there could be a question of if the driver was insured and if the insurer is the RTA insurer of the vehicle at the time of the incident.

Nearlyold

Is there a suggestion from the other side  that the person you are helping is the same person(s) albeit with a a different name that had a number of similar insurance claims in the past and that these form part of a "crash for cash" scam. 

molerat

Nearlyold said:

Is there a suggestion from the other side  that the person you are helping is the same person(s) albeit with a a different name that had a number of similar insurance claims in the past and that these form part of a "crash for cash" scam. 

By providing the data they have they are either incompetent or think that is the case. 

When my son sued the third party for the hire costs he didn't even know he was in court until I told him his name was on the court daily list, the insurer was doing the whole thing !  Most of these cases are little more than a formality so there is likely something out of the ordinary going on here.

forgotmyname

Thanks Sandtree, Nearlyold and molerat,  they had another call from their solicitor and it seems extremely messy. 

The at fault vehicleinsurer claim they are not the insurer its a hire vehicle but what type of hire = unknown?  As far

as we are aware they havenot named the hirer or their insurer yet claim they are not the insurer.

They originally said the driver was not insured by them yet they had the drivers full name which was unknown to us

until all the paperwork arrived.

This could go on for a long time I think, from what they said the Judge was not impressed at all. Claimants

solicitor seems very sure they are liable.

Thanks again.