My car insurer not pursuing 3rd party for liability

splinternet

Aretnap said:

.....It is after all their money that they are paying out, not yours. 

Yes but (a) I have to pay the excess, and (2) although I've got NCD protection, my renewal premium will inevitably go up.  If my insurer has to cover my repairs (initial estimate £5-6k) this will hang like a millstone round my neck for the next 5 years. So this will cost me because some guy came storming round a blind bend and admitted he was late taking his son to school.   Hence I'm prepared to fight for my money as well as the insurers'.

And yes (rigolith) I do very much regret not installing a dashcam in this car. 

If this all took place under Scottish law, my passenger would be considered a reliable witness;  so why not here in England?

MattMattMattUK

splinternet said:

Aretnap said:

.....It is after all their money that they are paying out, not yours. 

Yes but (a) I have to pay the excess, and (2) although I've got NCD protection, my renewal premium will inevitably go up.  If my insurer has to cover my repairs (initial estimate £5-6k) this will hang like a millstone round my neck for the next 5 years. So this will cost me because some guy came storming round a blind bend and admitted he was late taking his son to school.   Hence I'm prepared to fight for my money as well as the insurers'.

And yes (rigolith) I do very much regret not installing a dashcam in this car. 

Unfortunately as others have pointed out, it is your word against theirs, with no independent witnesses and no evidence to the contrary, therefore any insurer is going to go 50/50.

splinternet said:

If this all took place under Scottish law, my passenger would be considered a reliable witness;  so why not here in England?

Because England and Scotland have different legal systems. 

user1977

splinternet said:

Aretnap said:

.....It is after all their money that they are paying out, not yours. 

If this all took place under Scottish law, my passenger would be considered a reliable witness;  so why not here in England?

Do you have a citation to back that up? I'm merely a Scottish lawyer, but it's not a principle I'm aware of...I'm sure the defence can just as easily cast aspersions on how independent a witness your passenger is likely to be.

But going back to your question, yes you can pursue the case yourself if you want - but you'll be on your own i.e. you can't go back and claim some of your losses from your insurer if you didn't let them run the case from the start. And even if your insurer doesn't pay out, you'd still need to declare the incident when you renew, so your premiums are almost certainly going to go up anyway.

Sandtree

splinternet said:

Aretnap said:

.....It is after all their money that they are paying out, not yours. 

Yes but (a) I have to pay the excess, and (2) although I've got NCD protection, my renewal premium will inevitably go up.  If my insurer has to cover my repairs (initial estimate £5-6k) this will hang like a millstone round my neck for the next 5 years. So this will cost me because some guy came storming round a blind bend and admitted he was late taking his son to school.   Hence I'm prepared to fight for my money as well as the insurers'.

And yes (rigolith) I do very much regret not installing a dashcam in this car. 

If this all took place under Scottish law, my passenger would be considered a reliable witness;  so why not here in England?

On a 50/50 settlement you would get 50% of your excess back.

A passenger is a witness in England and Scotland, in both jurisdictions however questions will be raised on if they are biased given they were in your vehicle and your relationship with the driver will be challenged... a fee paying customer in a taxi is more likely to be considered unbiased than your mate or partner etc. 

Insurers aren't judges and its hard to say what a randomly assigned judge will ultimately decide on if your wife is going to tell the truth or is going to back their husband/wife. As such if there is a relationship between the two then generally insurers will not consider their evidence as there is even less chance that a wife will grass up their husband/wife without any threat of lying to court etc.

splinternet

user1977 said:

Do you have a citation to back that up?

Just going by what my insurer told me.