Seemingly no progress with DLG Legal Services personal injury claim after car accident

olgadapolga

boots_babe said:

born_again said:

I take it that you have been sent for medicals etc to cover your injuries.

No, that's one of the things that seems odd to me. They say they won't send me for a medical assessment until they've located the insurers to claim against,  and had a response from them. 

This is exactly what happened when I had a personal injury claim. It took months in my case as the police force involved wouldn't release details of the third party car or driver until the after the driver's initial court appearance (the driver was being prosecuted for seven offences). 

I had to argue (with a bit of help from the wife of a traffic officer) with them that it was no different to getting the details had I been in a car (I was a cyclist).

Once we had the information, an initial claim was made detailing my injuries/losses and things moved very fast after that. The initial medical was with a GP who referred onto several specialists. I was halfway through all of these when the insurance company made a fair settlement offer.

[Deleted User]

If you have on going costs for stuff like physio you can ask them to make interim payments.

Car_54

[Deleted User] said:

If you have on going costs for stuff like physio you can ask them to make interim payments.

True, but at the moment the OP doesn't even know who "they" are.

boots_babe

DullGreyGuy said:

boots_babe said:

boots_babe said:

DullGreyGuy said:

born_again said:

I take it that you have been sent for medicals etc to cover your injuries.

Accident was 6 months ago... would be unusually early unless very minor injury. At this point the compensation is £495 and so the medical reports etc would be more than the compensation and GP records may well be relied on as the much cheaper option. 

Thanks DullGreyGuy, although that's not great news,  I've already spent more than £495 on physio and the consultant.  Obviously I'd spend it regardless of being reimbursed as it's been needed, but I'd expected that I would at least not be out of pocket.

Ah have just read the link you posted, that says it's for whiplash specifically.  I did have whiplash but that's all resolved now. My ongoing issues aren't whiplash at all, so assuming there is a different process for reimbursement there?

Settlement cannot be made until either 1) you are fully recovered or 2) doctors are willing to say with full confidence what your life long prognosis is. At times you will have more than one interview with a doctor but for 90% of cases it's hard to justify the extra cost.

The difference with non-soft tissue injuries now is that it's still a full negotiation rather than fixed tariff... means more backwards and forwards when the doctors reports come in etc. There is an obvious difference in process when you are talking about someone who received modest scaring -v- those that lost a limb and are in a wheelchair for life. Fortunately my cases were "fast track" so under £25,000 and only occasionally multi-track. 

OK thank you, it's good to know that it's usual process for them not to have done a medical assessment yet. Although still seems bonkers to me, if as you say they usually wait until you're better before doing it. There will be nothing to see at that point.

My biggest grievance is that they didn't even ask for the dashcam footage, that I told them about on day 1. That would have been really key to show exactly what happened, it seems awful that they can get away with such negligence of not even following it up.

DullGreyGuy

boots_babe said:

DullGreyGuy said:

boots_babe said:

boots_babe said:

DullGreyGuy said:

born_again said:

I take it that you have been sent for medicals etc to cover your injuries.

Accident was 6 months ago... would be unusually early unless very minor injury. At this point the compensation is £495 and so the medical reports etc would be more than the compensation and GP records may well be relied on as the much cheaper option. 

Thanks DullGreyGuy, although that's not great news,  I've already spent more than £495 on physio and the consultant.  Obviously I'd spend it regardless of being reimbursed as it's been needed, but I'd expected that I would at least not be out of pocket.

Ah have just read the link you posted, that says it's for whiplash specifically.  I did have whiplash but that's all resolved now. My ongoing issues aren't whiplash at all, so assuming there is a different process for reimbursement there?

Settlement cannot be made until either 1) you are fully recovered or 2) doctors are willing to say with full confidence what your life long prognosis is. At times you will have more than one interview with a doctor but for 90% of cases it's hard to justify the extra cost.

The difference with non-soft tissue injuries now is that it's still a full negotiation rather than fixed tariff... means more backwards and forwards when the doctors reports come in etc. There is an obvious difference in process when you are talking about someone who received modest scaring -v- those that lost a limb and are in a wheelchair for life. Fortunately my cases were "fast track" so under £25,000 and only occasionally multi-track. 

OK thank you, it's good to know that it's usual process for them not to have done a medical assessment yet. Although still seems bonkers to me, if as you say they usually wait until you're better before doing it. There will be nothing to see at that point.

With the vast majority of claims being whiplash or other soft tissue injuries there really is nothing to see in 99% of those cases... you cant diagnose it with x-ray, ultrasound, CT or MRI scans. All you can really do is ask the patent to move and note when they say ow. 

The reports are often near carbon copies... a colleague had an argument with the doctor her lawyer's appointed after being knocked off her motorbike again as he did literally change about a dozen words in anotherwise stock report and she wasnt happy signing it saying her injury prevented her doing things like going dancing when she hadnt been dancing for decades before the injury anyway but it was just a list of stuff the doc always included in the how the injury impacted the claimants life section. 

caprikid1

Sorry to hear you are having such a rubbish time with your claim, unfortunately this is my experience with Direct Line also although I was the claimant. They are cheap for a reason and it isn't due to them not being on comparison websites !.

It might be worthwhile looking outside of what direct line are offering in terms of legal services as every bit of Direct Line I have ever encountered is quite frankly shocking, from lies , verging on fraud to appalling customer service. Never has the adage you get what you pay for been more true than with direct line from the very first claim they refused on me 30 years ago I have never took out a policy with them but sadly been on the other side of being a claimant.

GOOD LUCK !!

DullGreyGuy

caprikid1 said:
They are cheap for a reason and it isn't due to them not being on comparison websites !.

But they are on the comparison sites, just under the brands of Churchill, Privilege, Darwin etc. Given the back story of DL its a bit difficult for them to expose their own brand via these sites (and they had many run ins with this website's parent who'd list them without consent) but that just means the group spins up new brands like Darwin to enable them to target those customers whilst not damaging their cash cow brand's image.

caprikid1 said:
unfortunately this is my experience with Direct Line also although I was the claimant. 

 You do realise that Direct Line's duties etc are to its customer... they're not there to be nice to claimants but to defend their customer's from the claimant?

Now many say they have a good experience as a claimant (with almost every insurer) and therefore will consider becoming a customer the next year but the economics of mass market insurance is such that a strong defense of a claim is much more economical than a lenient approach in the hope of securing a new customer. 

caprikid1

" You do realise that Direct Line's duties etc are to its customer... they're not there to be nice to claimants but to defend their customer's from the claimant?"

I have no doubt you work in the industry but I have had several interactions over the years as claimants with other insurance companies and never had one lie to me, bully me. call up my approved repairerand demand they change the repair from a safe one to a dangerous one. If you genuinely think it is acceptable to pull out the rear of small car thats had a major impact , bash it straight, fill it with filler and spray it over than clearly you work for direct line. If you have ever jumped on a cardboard box and straightened it you would know the resulting rigidity that is lost.

I have been a direct line customer and found them equally shocking.

Its fine choosing a "New Pay Policy" so long as you or anyone else never needs to claim.

The problem with the likes of Direct Line is it is the Giant vs the Minion and they know rarely as an individual do you have the resource to fight to be put back in the place you were pre accident. They know the vast ,majority will give up and accept a poor outcome to get on with their lives.

At any one time I have up to 8 cars in the household covered by various insurance companies, 4 or 5 houses also covered by various insurance companies and non of those multiple insurance companies is ever as shocking as my experiences with DL.

DullGreyGuy

caprikid1 said:

I have no doubt you work in the industry

Have done for 20 years... though its been a whilst since I worked on mass market consumer insurance (other than from a reinsurance perspective)

caprikid1 said:
I have had several interactions over the years as claimants with other insurance companies and never had one lie to me, bully me. 

Without any personal reflection, there are always at least two side to every story and in every company there are the good and not so good employees. Claims handling is a fairly broad role and there are some that focus on some parts and others on others.

Take a third party I dealt with, they claimed that when out insured hit them they knocked their bracelet against the steering wheel damaging it. They initially sent in a report from a jewelers saying it was 22ct, Xg, not repairable and worth £15,000 or such. Given its value I asked for them to send the item in as salvage which they did without question.

Some claims handlers would have paid out as soon as the thing arrived but to me it looked like cheap tat, it wasnt hallmarked and seemed very light for its claimed weight. Took some digging to find who our Home team used for jewelry but sent it off for their review and it came back a week later saying it was 9ct gold plate, not worth repairing and a copy of the page of the argos catalog where the item was still on sale for £50 or so. 

Some claims handlers would have pushed that to the fraud department, others would never have known as they'd already paid out but I shared the findings with the TP's solicitor and offered £25 and they accepted. Theres arguments that each of the three outcomes is possibly correct and potentially the owner is writing posts on forums saying how X insurer swindled them out of £14,975

caprikid1 said:

The problem with the likes of Direct Line is it is the Giant vs the Minion and they know rarely as an individual do you have the resource to fight to be put back in the place you were pre accident. They know the vast ,majority will give up and accept a poor outcome to get on with their lives.

Thats going to be the case with every single insurer, by definition they have to have billions in the bank because they take on uncapped liability for every car they insure. Its why also the insurers have two regulators and the Financial Ombudsman has the vast powers it does. There are many criticism you can throw at the FOS but they have vastly more teeth than most other ombudsmen. 

As a third party you dont have FOS rights but thats how it should be and its always your choice if you leave it in the hands of the insurance company you chose or go it alone with the insurer the third party chose. Clearly some, like LV=, try and incentivise it with a claimant bonus if you deal direct. 

caprikid1

In my case it was quite simple. It was a very small classic car hit from behind whilst stationary ! No debate on liability or fault. With two young children in the rear.

I took the car to a local approved insurance repairer (Direct Line). They quote a sum and stated it required a new boot floor as the floor was buckled and twisted, new back panel and new boot lid plus other bits and pieces.

Direct line with all their powers then told the repairer that the boot floor should be straightened and not replaced and so should the back panel, this would remove a considerable amount of strength.

The insurance company assessor came out to my house and stated "We paid out on this car in 2008, not sure why we should pay out again" did you own the car then ? !!!!!! Seriously ?.

The assessor would get me to agree one thing on the phone then e-mail confirmation that was entirely different. I think Direct Line paid out £1500 in the end in total for the accident, I think my costs were over £4000 to get the car repaired safely. I chose to deal direct, not have a hire car to keep costs down. It ended up being at my expense. Accident management company next time !.
I tried going through Direct Lines complaints procedure and did not even get a response or a reply.

Over the 30 or so years I have been dealing with insurance I have had 3 similar claims, all of which have been a very short conversation. Get a quote and we will pay plus a bit for your expenses.

I too had an expensive Jewellery claim, they were very very diligent in ensuring that the claim was correct, they used lie detectors interviewed us personally but they did it politely and with dignity, yes they tried to pay out as little as they thought they could but with clear evidence they eventually paid out a fair replacement value on the 1ct Diamond ring, I continued to use that company for years, they did their job in trying to minimise the claim but politely , with dignity and paid a fair amount in the end. Unlike DL who were in essense fraudulent and immoral.