Hello,

I was involved in an accident which was disputed. Five days after the incident I received a phone call, from the 3rd party's insurance company, stating that the 3rd party had accepted liability. However his insurance company changed their mind on various occasions:

- Accepted

- Not accepted

- Not accepted

- Accepted (I asked the person to confirm three times that liability was accepted and she confirmed)

- Not accepted

I then received a letter confirming that liability was accepted. I have therefore taken legal action.

My question is: will the letter of acceptance be considered as a letter of contractual obligation since it is signed?

Kind regards,

Manny90

Should do, but they may have an explanation for changing their minds.

I am not sure whether this company are a shambles or whether they are just out to confuse you into submission ( so are clever)?

Thanks for the reply. I told them about the letter but respond as if it doesnt exist which then pushed me to contact a solicitor.

The company I'm having to deal with is Zurich.

I'm hoping that the signed letter should be enough to make them contractually bound. I did contract law during the first year of my law degree but most of the cases regarded contract of sale. However the principles should be same - once a document is signed the person is contractually bound and any contrary conduct makes them liable for breach.

Manny90

It depends on what the value of the claim is and what new evidence they have that they now seek to resile from their admission on.

If the claim will be in the fast track (between £1,000 and £25,0000 if a PI claim or £5,000 and £25,000 if a property claim) then it is likely that any admission of liability will be taken as binding and they will not be allowed to resile - especially as you have issued proceedings as you will now be prejudiced.

If the claim is of high value then any pre-issue admission can be resiled, although they would need to have a damn good reason to plead to withdraw their admission i.e. new witness evidence, evidence of fraud etc.

The case of David Green -v- Brunel & Family Housing Association Ltd 2008 clarifies the point nicely if you want to quote this.

Thanks for the reply Endymion. The cost of damage was £3000 so that meets the fast track bracket.

I think I can still access my legal research databases so I'll take a read of that case tonight. Thank you.