Call from solicitor claiming I am entitled to a sum

[s3cure]

I got a call from a company claiming to be solicitors (Clinch Solicitors) dealing in personal injury claims. The guy knew that i had had a minor accident 2 years ago (and I was at fault), the date of the accident and that I had my wife and son in the car with me at the time. He said my wife and son were allocated a payment for discomfort as they were with me in the car and if they don't claim it, after 2.5 years (3 weeks from now), the insurance company will claim it back.

 

Now I am totally confused why my insurer at the time did not tell me about this!!! At one hand I do not mind having some extra money but I am scared if this company could cause any sort of damage (financial) by taking DOB details for example.

 

I have explained to the guy that at the time of accident, no one was injured but he insisted the payments are for the discomfort caused by the accident to the passengers i had in the car at the time.

 

Can anyone please help advise what to do. Should I go on and allow them to claim the money or is there any risk in doing so for me and my wife?

[Ell-enn]

I suspect they will get your wife to put a claim into your insurance company for compensation - and your premium will go up next year.

 

 

My son had a call from a similar lot - they knew that a car had ran into him in a car park but didn't do much damage nor was anyone hurt. The other driver (it was someone my son knew quite well) reported the damage to his insurance co and they repaired my son's car, no problems, all sorted. However the claims lot who rang him up wanted my son to make a claim for discomfort caused by the accident - my son said he hadn't suffered any discomfort and didn't want to cause the other driver any problems as he had been very fair. They still sent him some claims forms for claiming compensation from the other driver - they went in the bin!

[AndyOrch]

Ambulance chasers ...ignore:wink:

[s3cure]

Thanks for your advice.

The guy on the phone did ask if I am with the same insurer and I said no and he said it will not affect my premium but I can see this could be a trap.

The guy will call later again to speak to my wife to confirm and I guess I will tell him we don't want to put a cliam through.

[AndyOrch]

Thread moved tot he appropriate forum.

[unclebulgaria67]

"He said my wife and son were allocated a payment for discomfort as they were with me in the car and if they don't claim it, after 2.5 years (3 weeks from now), the insurance company will claim it back."

 

That is a load of rubbish. If there had been such a claim, it would have been you who were making it, with relevant legal help. No money is allocated as such. What they are referring to is the practice of insurers to estimate potential losses, which I think they call a reserve from memory. They have to do this, as under FCA regulation and other regulation before that, insurers have to have some form of accounting for potential losses they may be at risk from. It does not mean that they will be liable for all such risks, but under financial regulations, they have to be prepared.

 

Someone from your Insurance company has passed on information to the the firm who contacted you. For providing the information either the employeee or the insurance company have earned a referral fee. I think this must have happened, given the amount of details they had.

 

Anyway, it is up to you whether you make a complaint to the insurance company concerned or you just leave it. Whether you would be able to claim any compensation for the accident is not something I can answer. It depends on the details and you can contact a Solicitors (no win no fee) of your own choice, if you wish to follow this up. For adults they have 3 years in which to seek a PI claim and for children I think it is 3 years from their 18th birthday.

[dacouc]

"He said my wife and son were allocated a payment for discomfort as they were with me in the car and if they don't claim it, after 2.5 years (3 weeks from now), the insurance company will claim it back."

 

That is a load of rubbish. If there had been such a claim, it would have been you who were making it, with relevant legal help. No money is allocated as such. What they are referring to is the practice of insurers to estimate potential losses, which I think they call a reserve from memory. They have to do this, as under FCA regulation and other regulation before that, insurers have to have some form of accounting for potential losses they may be at risk from. It does not mean that they will be liable for all such risks, but under financial regulations, they have to be prepared.

 

Someone from your Insurance company has passed on information to the the firm who contacted you. For providing the information either the employeee or the insurance company have earned a referral fee. I think this must have happened, given the amount of details they had.

 

Anyway, it is up to you whether you make a complaint to the insurance company concerned or you just leave it. Whether you would be able to claim any compensation for the accident is not something I can answer. It depends on the details and you can contact a Solicitors (no win no fee) of your own choice, if you wish to follow this up. For adults they have 3 years in which to seek a PI claim and for children I think it is 3 years from their 18th birthday.

 

The information is more likely to have come from a comparison site as some of these sell the data on, people enter that they had an accident and when it was and the ambulance callers ring and try and sign you up.

 

Or it's just one of the ambulance chasers who ring anyone and blag you, if they have the talk they can work out whether someone has had an accident and word the conversation as if they already knew about it.

[unclebulgaria67]

The information is more likely to have come from a comparison site as some of these sell the data on, people enter that they had an accident and when it was and the ambulance callers ring and try and sign you up.

 

Or it's just one of the ambulance chasers who ring anyone and blag you, if they have the talk they can work out whether someone has had an accident and word the conversation as if they already knew about it.

 

You might be right, but there have been a few instances of leaked data from Insurers. Aviva had to sack 2 members of staff earlier this year.

[Ganymede]

The information is more likely to have come from a comparison site as some of these sell the data on, people enter that they had an accident and when it was and the ambulance callers ring and try and sign you up.

 

Or it's just one of the ambulance chasers who ring anyone and blag you, if they have the talk they can work out whether someone has had an accident and word the conversation as if they already knew about it.

 

 

They appear to be a genuine firm of solicitors and not some dodgey CMC.

 

I really don't think they would have cold called the OP as solicitors aren't allowed to do that.

 

What is most likely is that the solicitors are on the insurers panel of firms so have been passed the data directly.

 

Incidentally referral fees are now banned and unlawful as of April 2013.