Personal injury.. Should I wait?

rickyroma

Had a motor accident 3 months ago. Not my fault but I accept with no proof, liability could go 50/50.
 Called my insurer yesterday and they said it is still dragging on as the other insurers are just not responding. I was asked if I had logged a personal injury claim. I haven't yet but have been considering it. My insurers said if I do it now, the liability issue (and my excess) can't proceed until my PI claim is resolved... which could be ages as we all know.
 So.. Do I hold fire on the personal injury claim until the liability side is resolved? I am thinking about next year when the renewal comes up. Surely I will struggle to move to another insurer if I can't answer how my accident was eventually resolved? 

Aretnap

There is no reason why you can't change insurer with an open claim, but new insurers will treat it in much the same way as a fault claim when it comes to seeing your premiums. OTOH if you think you're insurer is likely to settle as 50/50 that's a fault claim as well, so you are in the same boat at renewal time either way.

If you have a significant injury then next year's renewal is likely to be small change in comparison to your personal injury claim, so you should be prioritising your injury claim over writing about what happens at renewal time.

DullGreyGuy

rickyroma said:
My insurers said if I do it now, the liability issue (and my excess) can't proceed until my PI claim is resolved... which could be ages as we all know.

 So.. Do I hold fire on the personal injury claim until the liability side is resolved? I am thinking about next year when the renewal comes up. Surely I will struggle to move to another insurer if I can't answer how my accident was eventually resolved? 

Liability and your excess can proceed concurrently to your bodily injury claim however an insurer may make a very commercially minded decision on how to settle if you aren't making an injury claim. If you are making an injury claim you will have a law firm that represents you (and technically your insurer too) and they may have more confidence in the ability to get a better settlement than the classic 50/50 because you can't prove one side over the other. 

If it were to be litigated then the court would consider the full case not just the injury (though insurers do sometimes agree with each other to exclude their outlay to reduce legal fees but to follow the judgement)