Counter Sue over Motor 'accident'

[DarrenGallacher]

Hi all

,My partner has just been 'served' a letter from a no-win-no-fee over an accident that is 'said' to be our fault.

 

Accident & history:November 2012:My partner was driving doing about 15mph and took a wrong turn into an exit of a service station in our small town.

A car was approaching (!) and I called out, we broke as did they, no contact. Then a few seconds later, smash - the car behind said car infront rear-ended them.

We pulled over concerned, and waited for the police, swapped details etc - but felt - as the rear-ender did the contact, they would be at fault. My partner has a 100% clean record, never had an accident and has driven since 17, she is now 31.I explained to the police that we had been distracted as to what turning and took the wrong one.

 

We had a tragic year last year with our first daughter being born serverly sick, and dying after 7 operations at the (wonderful) Royal Brompton in London. My partner was on medication and had become quite agriphobic, but was slowly recovering from the grief. The wife of the driver of the car rear-ended is the one that has served us. She claims that she has now been off work 2 and a half months and wants us to pay.

The letter from the solicitor states that she has not seen a doctor, seen a physio, seen any medical profesional, but claims she 'requires future phisio' for this supposive accident. I don't see how you can take 2.5 months off without a doctors note?

What sort of company allows that? Mine would sack me for gross misconduct that's for sure.

 

Cynical as I am, we all feel that she is milking the accident for all its worth, already we've been told she's going via her insurance firm at the rear-ender, and now us for damages.

My partner is broken, in tears, and very scared of the outcome. I'm outraged and feel we should counter-sue for fraud.

This woman is a local to our small town.

I feel we can ask family and friends to keep an eye out for her, take photos if they see her out clubbing etc, anything that de-credits her claim.

 

Is this a dangerous road fuelled by anger to go down? I'm at a loss as to what to do.

Alex, my partner is contacting her insurer, but I feel if this goes to court, we've no idea how to do it - and don't want a solicitor that will advise us to settle ...its not fair or right.

My partner is also pregnant again (very early stages) ...but I fear the stress of this will hurt our baby.

I'm worried sick.

Any advise really appreciated and most welcome

 

Thanks for your time

[BankFodder]

Firstly - you shouldn't worry. It isn't going to be very serious.

 

You must contact your insurers - and at the end of the day, the matter will be settled by them although you will lose some claims discount. Surely in your present situation, the best thing to do is to forget issues of pride and just get rid of the problem.

From what you say, it seems to me that you are both responsible

 

From what you say, it is clear that you have been negligent in entering a one way route the wrong way.

But equally the other car has been negligent in driving to close to the car in front and in a manner which left her unable to stop in time in the event of an emergency.

It would be up to a judge to decide the portion of blame - but it might be 50/50 - which would mean that the claimant would get 50% from each of you..

 

How much are they claiming? They must have mentioned a figure.

 

You are best off leaving it to your insurer which will probably try to work something out with the other driver as to shares.

If you are sued then you should apply to have the other driver joined as a second defendant.

[DarrenGallacher]

Thank you, we will contact the insurer tomorrow (I work in the City and she's 2 hour commute away upset right now, so I sent her to her mums!) We have never had any legal problems ever, but your right, I'm putting pride into the equasion which won't help anything. Her dad was a traffic officer locally for 30 years and had said they'd not have the nerve to come for Alex, but I think he doesn't appreciate how much the culture has changed in the past 10-15 years, and how anyone and everyone claims for whiplash etc.I'm unsure of the amount as she was upset on the phone today, I will go home and add this post tomorrow. But I'm starting to think logically from your post already and we are covered for liability, no matter how fraudulent it is. I may suggest to my partner though to inform her insurer that she suspects its fraudulent ...would they prompt her insurance to investigate a little, or am I being far to naive in thinking this is how things work?Thanks, I'm almost breathing normally again!

[raydetinu]

yep agree, put it all in the hands of your insurers and let them deal with it. Just fill out a the incident form and answer any questions, thats it.

they will deal with it. thats you pay insurance for.

[Conniff]

Have moved you to the General Motoring Issues section

[crem]

Yes, I agree with others that this is one for your insurance company to deal with. Morally, I am sure you would want them to defend the claim, and they may, on the other hand they always tend to look at the financials first and if it is cheaper to settle they often do whether we like it or not.

 

From a sensible point of view, you could say you made a small error turning into the station past their "no entry" sign (but remember this sign is on private land and you haven't actually contravened a road traffic sign). You took remedial action and stopped your car. the driver coming towards you saw the problem and took remedial action also and stopped his car. the 3rd car failed to respond to a hazard and struck car #2.

 

Why car #2 had to stop is fairly irrelevant to car #3 at this time. It did, so they should have also stopped safely! What if #2 had stopped because a pedestrian stepped in front of them? Would #3 have tried to sue the pedestrian for making car #2 stop suddenly? I doubt it.

 

I believe the entire fault should lie with car #3 as they caused the actual impact, all others took appropriate action given the progression of events. But let the insurers sort it.

[Old Cogger]

car 3 has contravened highway code as enough room between cars to stop, not tailgate a car in front.?

[raydetinu]

succintly put crem

[Ganymede]

I don't really see any fraud in what you have said, there was a crash and so it is very likely there have been injuries etc.

 

Contact your insurers and let them fight it for you.

[crem]

She claims that she has now been off work 2 and a half months and wants us to pay.

The letter from the solicitor states that she has not seen a doctor, seen a physio, seen any medical profesional, but claims she 'requires future phisio' for this supposive accident. I don't see how you can take 2.5 months off without a doctors note?

 

I don't really see any fraud in what you have said, there was a crash and so it is very likely there have been injuries etc.

Contact your insurers and let them fight it for you.

 

I would put the suggestion to my insurer that there is a potential fraudulent claim being submitted based on the doctors/time off work scenario detailed above.

 

To claim for injuries that don't exist would be fraud, and I agree that anyone injured sufficiently to need 10 weeks off work would be seeing a doctor!

[Ganymede]

Do we know the extent of the injuries or what her employment is?

 

Fraud is a bold claim to make based on very little information.

[crem]

Do we know the extent of the injuries or what her employment is?

 

Fraud is a bold claim to make based on very little information.

 

... hence the term I would give to the insurer "...potential fraudulent claim". They have a specialist team to investigate things like this and there is nothing wrong with flagging it up for their attention. I have done so previously when my wife had a very minor bump in a car park, bumper to bumper, yet a claim came straight in to our insurers. Having given them the facts and suggesting that the fraud team should look at the details of their claim, we heard nothing more at all from them.

[assisted blonde]

Agree the reason you have insurance is so that they can deal with anything, just give them the facts and let them argue among themselves

[DarrenGallacher]

Just to update re posts on her injury:Constant headaches, back-pain, neck pain, back stiffness, neck stiffness, pins and needles in limbs and anxiety problems with re-entering a car since.If you look on the NHS website, these are ALL the symptons listed as "Chronic Whiplash" A friend of mine was in a severe accident whereby he broke both his legs and was cut from the car by firemen. That was at 80 mph on a motorway, she wasn't moving and was re-ended at no more than 5 to 10mph by Car 3.It's tragic that our insurer (whom we've left it to re advise) may just settle for ease, people like this ruine the system and deserve shaming.

[crem]

Irrelevant of her supposed injuries, I would be pursuing it from both angles with my insurer;

i.e. 1.the claim appears to be fraudulent as the claim for injuries does not bear any relationship to the (I assume) undisputed impact.

2 If the injuries are accepted, the claim should be against car #3. As stated previously, why car #2 stopped is not relevant. It did. Therefore car #3 should have stopped safely also.

[Conniff]

Not the ole whiplash gag. The insurance companies are stamping down on this and do have specialist departments for it now. Get that letter in outlining your suspicions.

[Bang!]

As it happened in a petrol station...

 

1. It might be taped

 

2. The entrance/exit signs are likely to be advisory rather than traffic signs depending upon where it happened and who owns it.

 

3. The highway code is likely to be irrelevant too.

 

Had a car hit a stationary car on private ground, then my money would be on the fault lying with the car who drove into the other car.

 

You might also want to suggest she avoids fairground dodgems if so easily injured.