Car accident - insurance - personal injury claim

The premium has already been hiked. We did this dance when the driver of the van put in a claim. Our insurance got renewed and the premium went up, and then he put the claim for personal injury in. We panicked, but were told the premium wouldn't go up any further. I assume this would be the same. I don't know how that works, but that's what we were told when he claimed. If, as Raymond has said, this is just another claim by a "3rd party" then I guess that would be the same.

All that being said, we're yet to feel the hike since I wrote that Focus off when I hydrolocked the engine. Not a good couple of years for us insurance wise :D
 
If the accident was within the last five years, when you re-new any changes should be nominated to them. This will either be an increased cost because of her accident, or increased cost because of another claim against her accident. There is a change there that does need to be declared regardless of the intricacies of insurance claim handling. You'd be surprised the different it can make with some insurers, and it's clearly going to be in relation to the payout. But yes, now remembering your misfortune, it's up to you. But I'd look into doing it yourself, if you can hold a straight face. ;)

PS, I think you need to get your daughter a bigger piggy bank if you sign.
 
Just an update on this, as I've now had the paperwork from the solicitors. I wanted to read it in black and white in something approaching English, rather than just getting the sales pitch from a monkey on the phone.

It seems it's garbage. On the phone they'd spoken about stress and minor discomfort, and whatnot, which I'd entertained because yeah, my wife tells me my daughter was upset and sore after the accident, but then you look on the sheet that lists out what the actual injuries being claimed for are and it's... drumroll... soft tissue damage and whiplash. Even though I'd specifically made it clear to the person on the phone that there was no whiplash and we wouldn't put in such a claim, and they'd specifically said it wouldn't be a claim for that.

Also, my solicitor friend says it's rubbish that my daughter would be eligible to make the claim now. Apparently she would have had no right to make the claim then, and no more right now. I'm going to speak to him in more detail and get the ins and outs of that so that when I write back to cancel the work I can drop that in as well.

There's other errors in there as well, like saying there were two people in the car at the time, though my youngest daughter was in the car as well. Presumably they're not interested in her as she's not eligible to make any claims... The writing is also abysmal, and this from a solicitor who you'd expect to be able to write proper English. I've a mind to correct it and send that back with everything else.
 
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Sounds like a company sending out template claims and filling in your details to fill the gaps. A lot of these cases are not dealt with by qualified solicitors.
 
we're yet to feel the hike since I wrote that Focus off when I hydrolocked the engine.
Click to expand...

As an aside, Not everybody knows that one can make a claim for that!

(Mind, IMO, I reckon it is borderline as to whether one should be allowed to. Can one claim for, say, mis-fueling? )
 
Vonhelmet said:
The writing is also abysmal, and this from a solicitor who you'd expect to be able to write proper English. I've a mind to correct it and send that back with everything else.
Click to expand...

During various house purchasing/selling I've noticed that Solicitors rarely know basic English.
Considering all these official legal documents they are dealing with you would think they could at least spell.

That would be like me, as an Engineer not know the basic formulas for Force, Pressure etc. The fundamental things for doing the job to the minimum required standard.

I hate dealing with Solicitors, and always correct multiple errors (per page) on every document they send me before I sign them. Then ask for a discount for having to do some of their work. lol (sometimes get it too!!!)
 
Orionaut said:
As an aside, Not everybody knows that one can make a claim for that!

(Mind, IMO, I reckon it is borderline as to whether one should be allowed to. Can one claim for, say, mis-fueling? )
Click to expand...

We had all this out in thread I posted at the time :D

As Fox said at the time, you can claim for driving into a car or a tree or a house, so you should also be able to claim for driving into a surprisingly large puddle!
 
I spoke to my solicitor friend who told me two things:

1) A solicitor shouldn't be acting for us as a result of a cold call. This is apparently a breach of some code of conduct.

2) In cases where a claim is made against a driver by a family member who was a passenger in the car, insurers often reserve the right to sue the driver to recover their costs in relation to that claim. Which insurer did my friend pluck from his mind as commonly doing this? Our insurer. Awesome.

So yeah, time to write a letter back telling Hampson Hughes where to shove it.
 
Insurers are getting tougher, three of my brother's accidents have involved hitting other cars and two of them put in a whiplash claim.

One head on into someone else's static car was refused as she exaggerated the damage to her car to make the whiplash claim seem more realistic. The entire claim was actually refused.

The other where he shoved an estate of some sort into a hatchback waiting to turn right, the estate owner wants whiplash for himself and his "passengers" because my brother sped into the back of them at some fantastic speed. The lady in the hatchback however made a statement saying the estate had no passengers and my brother followed her from Ambleside at 30, so that's getting refused too probably.

He can certainly pick them.
 
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