Admiral are asking for settlement costs after 7 years from drink driving accident

ontheroad1970

A claims management company may well have contacted the third party and prompted them to make a personal injury claim.  

Ectophile

ontheroad1970 said:

Speak to a solicitor - it could be past the time for statute of limitations - normally 6 years, except in the case of injured children.

But anyone who was injured would have 3 years to make a claim.  If Admiral then had to pay out, then Admiral's claim against the OP could expire 6 years after that, or 9 years after the accident.

Car_54

Ectophile said:

ontheroad1970 said:

Speak to a solicitor - it could be past the time for statute of limitations - normally 6 years, except in the case of injured children.

But anyone who was injured would have 3 years to make a claim.  If Admiral then had to pay out, then Admiral's claim against the OP could expire 6 years after that, or 9 years after the accident.

But the three years can be extended, if the parties agree and the court approves.

DullGreyGuy

Car_54 said:

Ectophile said:

ontheroad1970 said:

Speak to a solicitor - it could be past the time for statute of limitations - normally 6 years, except in the case of injured children.

But anyone who was injured would have 3 years to make a claim.  If Admiral then had to pay out, then Admiral's claim against the OP could expire 6 years after that, or 9 years after the accident.

But the three years can be extended, if the parties agree and the court approves.

If the court is involved its already litigated and so the clock has stopped... the court can agree its in all party's interests to allow more time for medical tests, treatment etc to get a stable ultimate prognosis and so stay the true court date. 

DullGreyGuy

ontheroad1970 said:

A claims management company may well have contacted the third party and prompted them to make a personal injury claim.  

Well outside the value of a spurious whiplash injury being claimed, even a car full of them unless the third party was driving a Rolls. 

Grey_Critic

We can only give our personal opinions - as others have said you need PROPER legal advice - see a solicitor

WellKnownSid

DullGreyGuy said:

ontheroad1970 said:

A claims management company may well have contacted the third party and prompted them to make a personal injury claim.  

Well outside the value of a spurious whiplash injury being claimed, even a car full of them unless the third party was driving a Rolls. 

This all sounds like speculation - however we DO know that a period of seven years has elapsed, during which all kinds of action could have been taken by injured parties - seven years worth of lawyers fighting for less than £100k would appear to be a bargain?

A decent solicitor would appear to be the order of the day, who will probably want to see a full breakdown of exactly where the money was spent.

Grey_Critic

What the OP has not said is if there has been any correspondemnce during that time. - the statute of limitations may very well be a moveable feast if there has.

Talk ith a soliitor.

Herzlos

DullGreyGuy said:

ontheroad1970 said:

A claims management company may well have contacted the third party and prompted them to make a personal injury claim.  

Well outside the value of a spurious whiplash injury being claimed, even a car full of them unless the third party was driving a Rolls. 

If the 3rd party was in a Rolls, the total bill would be for more than £93k.

What also makes you think any injury claim would be spurious? OP said no-one was "seriously hurt", but that doesn't follow that there were no minor injuries. We don't have any details here so anything is just wild speculation but a £93k claim is entirely possible.

Remember here that Admiral are going to be wanting refunded for everything here - admin time, legal time, any court fees, and a claim could easily run to nearly £100k if there's damage to the 3rd party car, hire car fees, street furniture, a minor injury and loss of earnings.

There's some scope to try and argue about the figure but it's likely that Admiral can justify most of it since they'll have figures of all the external stuff they paid out and likely a total number of hours spent by which team at which hourly rate.

DullGreyGuy

WellKnownSid said:

DullGreyGuy said:

ontheroad1970 said:

A claims management company may well have contacted the third party and prompted them to make a personal injury claim.  

Well outside the value of a spurious whiplash injury being claimed, even a car full of them unless the third party was driving a Rolls. 

This all sounds like speculation - however we DO know that a period of seven years has elapsed, during which all kinds of action could have been taken by injured parties - seven years worth of lawyers fighting for less than £100k would appear to be a bargain?

A decent solicitor would appear to be the order of the day, who will probably want to see a full breakdown of exactly where the money was spent.

Assuming it is minor injuries then its Fast Track or below where costs are broadly fixed based on the value of the claim. Its multi-track cases (over £25k) where fees are based on time taken on the case. 

Herzlos said:

DullGreyGuy said:

ontheroad1970 said:

A claims management company may well have contacted the third party and prompted them to make a personal injury claim.  

Well outside the value of a spurious whiplash injury being claimed, even a car full of them unless the third party was driving a Rolls. 

If the 3rd party was in a Rolls, the total bill would be for more than £93k.

I'm assuming its just replacing a bumper inlay on it not a whole panel

Herzlos said:
What also makes you think any injury claim would be spurious? OP said no-one was "seriously hurt", but that doesn't follow that there were no minor injuries. We don't have any details here so anything is just wild speculation but a £93k claim is entirely possible.

Remember here that Admiral are going to be wanting refunded for everything here - admin time, legal time, any court fees, and a claim could easily run to nearly £100k if there's damage to the 3rd party car, hire car fees, street furniture, a minor injury and loss of earnings.

There's some scope to try and argue about the figure but it's likely that Admiral can justify most of it since they'll have figures of all the external stuff they paid out and likely a total number of hours spent by which team at which hourly rate.

Nothing makes me thing it was spurious, that was a comment in response to someone else saying it was possible dodgy whiplash claims. Unless there was a high value vehicle involved or a bus load of children then its more likely that there were fairly notable injuries based on the value of the claim. 

Certainly when we charged policyholders in circumstances like this we would look to recover from them exactly what we'd have recovered from a third party insurer which means allocated claims costs. Unallocated claims costs (your "admin") is not recovered from TPIs, reinsurers or policyholders. Some insurers have attempted to get around this by creating separate claims management functions which then bill the insurance entity in a similar way to a TPA would but this is typically on a fixed per claim fee or a % of vehicle repair costs rather than T&M. Such setups have had mixed receptions in the courts when other insurers have challenged this. 

The average motor claim including injuries in 2016 was c£13,200 including all your forementioned items other than unallocated claims costs. In the OPs case they couldnt have claimed for own vehicle damage and so in principle should have been below the average but are over 7x the average settlement which strongly points to injuries being notably more than the average injury claim.