Personal Injury claim from 2022

ABailey123

Hello,

my mother had an accident (her fault) at the beginning of 2022 and all the damages to the other car has been covered by her insurance. Police at the time said that there's no injury to anyone else. Car insurance ended shortly after that. Now over a year later she had recieved a letter for personal injury from the driver of that car and she's being sued in civil court for that.

Does that mean that she will have to pay out of her own pocket for the claim or do we contact her old insurance and let them deal with it? (It been over a year ago). We have no idea what to do.

The letter says that we have to let our insurance know that she's being sued but I don't know if it's true as the policy is no longer valid and we don't know if they will even care.

Kind Regards

Torry_Quine

Yes give all correspondence to the insurance company that you had at the time. 

mebu60

Send it on to the former insurance company who were the insurers at the time of the accident. Be sure to quote their claims reference. I would write it on each document. Ideally take a copy yourselves. I would also ring them to let them know it's coming. Keep it simple. Just say you've been notified of a personal injury to the other party and will forward the paperwork for their attention. They will deal with it. I would also write to the letter writer informing them who the insurance company is and their claims reference and confirm that you have forwarded the letter. 

Car_54

mebu60 said:

Send it on to the former insurance company who were the insurers at the time of the accident. Be sure to quote their claims reference. I would write it on each document. Ideally take a copy yourselves. I would also ring them to let them know it's coming. Keep it simple. Just say you've been notified of a personal injury to the other party and will forward the paperwork for their attention. They will deal with it. I would also write to the letter writer informing them who the insurance company is and their claims reference and confirm that you have forwarded the letter. 

Usually the insurer’s terms oblige you NOT to acknowledge or respond.

Obviously it’s worrying for the OP’s mother, but for the insurers and lawyers concerned it’s all in a routine day’s work.

ABailey123

Thank you for all your replies.

We will contact her old insurer tomorrow and send them all the documentation.

Aretnap

If she had an insurance policy in force at the time of the accident then the insurance company that issued it is required by law to pay for any claim that is (successfully) made against her. Whether or not the policy is still in force by the time the claim is issued is neither here nor there.

As above, contact the insurer she was with at the time asap and let them respond to the court papers on her behalf.

As an aside it must be alarming to receive court papers in her name, but it's not actually unusual. Possibly the driver of the other car has been in dispute with your mum's insurers for some time over the injury claim, and if they can't come to a resolution then the only way for the driver to force the issue is through the courts. Now any claim has to be made against your mum, because she is the one who (allegedly) caused the injuries so ultimately liability lies with her. The other driver can't sue the insurance company directly unless he's claiming that it was the insurance company that injured him. Instead he has to sue your mum, and your mum has to ask her insurers to deal with the claim on her behalf, which they agreed to do when she took out the policy.

DullGreyGuy

Car insurance is written on a "date of loss" basis, ie you claim on the insurance that was in force on the date of the incident. There are other classes of insurance (generally not in personal lines) which are on a "claims made" basis (and weird hybrid policies in France) which are great for the insurer but are problematic for the insured (hence why France does a weird thing).

Is it court papers you've received or just a solicitors letter threatening court? If it's the former you need to act promptly, speak to your former insurers before sending them off to confirm the correct department etc to address them to. If its just a letter you still forward it but calling is more optional and there is less urgency to ensure it gets to the right person as quickly as possible - large insurers are threatened with court hundreds of times a day.