Car insurance claim - how to speed it up?

[shiers123]

Have had a look through the threads and can't see anything that matches with this. Would anyone be able to advise on the following;

Accident in Jan 2006 - not at fault - was hit from behind, driver admitted liability to myself, my partner, to police at the local station and also via my insurance company.
Claim for value of car all dealt with.
Claim has gone in for injuries and loss of earnings etc after independant doctors assessment as arranged by my insurers at the time (Liverpool Victoria) and appointed solicitors.
Going rate for the injuries sustained is between £2500 and £3000.
Other drivers insurance (Direct Line) dragging the whole thing out now and apparantly disputing liability of the other driver. Funnily enough their most recent offer of settlement was about the £1800 mark.

3 questions -

1. I want to advise Direct Line through my solicitors that I am not satisfied with the amount of time this is taking to settle and that the amount being sought has now increased by £500. This amount will increase every week (or fortnight) that the claim goes unsettled until they start to hit the figures initially proposed as above. (I am hoping that this may jolly things along.)

2. Is this legal? Am I entitled to do this? Is it likely to backfire?
My solicitors keep advising that it will be proceeding to court unless they settle at the agreed figure, but this obviously gets put back every time they make an offer and it is then rejected. The offers only go up every month or so by about £100. At this rate it will take about a year before thay get to the base amount of £2500!!

3. If I cannot legally use this route, is there another way that I can get some effective action as this is just unacceptable - why should we be at the mercy of the insurers and solicitors whilst they play ping pong with my entitlement?

VERY frustrated and ANY positive advice appreciated!

Laura

[shiers123]

By the way, just wanted to say I hope this post didn't make me sound like a golddigger!!
I actually wasn't interested in making an injury claim as it was only some damaged neck, arm and hand tissue with some back ache, but my insurance company strongly advised I should do this and before I knew it I had recieved a phone call from the 'appointed solicitors to my case'. They then set the whole ball rolling.

I thought that for a claim of a couple of thou would all be over and done with quickly when you compare it with the cases you see on tv where people get £10,000 +.

To be honest I did get to the point where I thought 'sod it - can't be bothered', but now I am getting into the 'principle of the thing' stage.

Has anyone managed to get a similair situation hurried along??

[mikey]

Originally Posted by shiers123

By the way, just wanted to say I hope this post didn't make me sound like a golddigger!!
I actually wasn't interested in making an injury claim as it was only some damaged neck, arm and hand tissue with some back ache, but my insurance company strongly advised I should do this and before I knew it I had recieved a phone call from the 'appointed solicitors to my case'. They then set the whole ball rolling.

I thought that for a claim of a couple of thou would all be over and done with quickly when you compare it with the cases you see on tv where people get £10,000 +.

To be honest I did get to the point where I thought 'sod it - can't be bothered', but now I am getting into the 'principle of the thing' stage.

Has anyone managed to get a similair situation hurried along??

the best thing to do is ask the solicitors to refer the file to counsel for their views. If counsel agree the offer is low then DL will have no choice other than to settle as per counsel or take it to court and look stupid.

[shiers123]

Thanks Mikey,

Just had a chat with the solicitors and they say they only do this when the claimant is under 18.
They advised that if I went through Counsel, they then may actually look at similair claims that were at the lower end of the scale, eg. £1500 and may then tell my solicitor that the claim for £3000 is not a justified amount - settle for less.

This is all getting very frustrating as this whole matter (not the money) is now getting in the way of some important family issues and descisions, so I need them to get their fingers out. Solicitors just say we have to issue court proceedings and wait.

AArgh!!

Anyway, many thanks for your time on this query - I really appreciated it.

laura

[Rob S]

The other factor that might be slowing things down is in relation to the injuries you sustained. If you are still having treatment for them then it is not advisable to settle now, especially if there could be long term implications to your health. If you accept a settlement now and then health problems ensue at a later date you will not be able to go back to the insurance company and ask for more, as they will tell you that you accepted a full and final settlement.

[girlynutnut]

To be honest, 8 months isn't really that long for a Personal Injury claim. You have two issues you need to sort out - liability and quantum. Liability shouldn't be in dispute if they went into the back of you - they haven't got any defence. As far as quantum goes, your solicitors should be using the Judicial Studies Board (JSB) Guidelines which provide figures for differing injuries depending on severity and prognosis for recovery. They should also be quoting case law to the other side e.g. claims for similar injuries that went to court and the judge awarded damages. The problem is likely to be that the TP insurers are probably putting it through a computer programme such as Colossus which gives them a maximum they can settle up to. They won't go higher than that because they know most claimant's will accept rather than litigate. I would suggest you get your sols to confirm whether liability has been admitted and how they have valued your claim. If they are saying Counsel would recommend a lower settlement, then I guess they may have overvalued it. Counsel's valuation is more accurate usually. HTH.

[Teddybear]

I agree with other posters that 8 months isn't too bad at all to be at this stage.

By the sounds of things you have two ways forward:

*You can settle now and risk undercompensation - your solicitor can put forward what is known as a part 36 offer forward to the other solicitors or can issue court proceedings;

or

*You can continue with any treatment and wait until the end of the prognosis period (as per your medical evidence) and then review your symptoms - you can either settle the claim if recovered or if not recovered at end of prognosis obtain further and more specialised expert evidence.

I don't see the harm in getting a barrister's advice however it is not always a recoverable cost unless proceedings are issued (if I am right in saying that this is a fast track matter in which case the costs will fall under the predictable costs rules). Might be worth asking your solicitor to get your barrister to advise on liability and quantum and draft particulars of claim if necessary - Particulars of claim are court documents that are filed with a claim form - then get the claim issued asap in order to ensure that the fee would be recoverable.

This would be a bonus for your solicitor as if the claim is issued then the file can go to cost draftsman and therefore his costs will be a lot more. The matter can still be negotiated and settled without having to go to a final hearing but if liability is still an issue when it is clear cut then I would find it hard not to have issued on this one.

Counsel's advice isn't filed at Court or disclosed to a third party insurers or solicitor unless it is a minor claim and the matter is going to court for an infant approval hearing (which is just to authorise damages on behalf of a child and then get them invested in court). Counsel's advice is not a discoverable document as it is covered under legal professional privilege so third party cannot demand sight of it and counsel will have greater specialism and knowledge of case law/current Judicial Studies Board Guidelines plus knowledge of what local Courts/Judges have awarded at final hearings for similar claims.

Having said that I don't know what the prognosis is, it might be fairly straight forward, for £2500 - £3000 just for personal injury you are looking at at quote bad soft tissue injury/whiplash 2 - 2.5 year prognosis, personally I would value general soft tissue injury and general whiplash prognosis of 6 - 8 months at £1500.00 depending on how intermittant symptoms are at the time of examination. Having said that courts occasionally throw a spanner in the works and award damages right at the bottom end of the spectrum of damages just to p!ss us off and make us look crap!!

Don't know if my waffling on is of any assistance but it might give you some insight into personal injury/road traffic accident claims.

All the best Teddybear xx