A relative was involved in an accident recently when a car cut a corner, crossed the central line and hit three vehicles travelling in the opposite direction, writing two of them off. A relative of mine was in one of them.
The police attended and the driver that crossed the line has subsequently been prosecuted. However, his insurance company are contesting the claim. How can this be?
[i]How can this be? [/i]
Are they contesting liability or just the amount being claimed?
Its because their default initial response to everything is "we're not liable".
It sounds as though they may well have a hard time wriggling out of paying in this case though
If it was your insurance company you wouldn't want them just paying out without examining the full story, plus checking whether any claims are actually valid - eg whiplash, damage that already existed etc
Has been prosecuted or is being prosecuted? If the latter, it's not unusual for the civil side of things - the insurance claims - to be put on hold pending the outcome of the criminal matter.
Contesting [b]liability[/b] and [b]being[/b] prosecuted.
Apparently there is some 90 day deadline that will be reached this week regarding the insurance.
It was a sweeping right hand bend on a 40 mph country road. He hit the side of the first car with a glancing blow, went head on into to second and spun into the third. The first two, and his, were written off, the first getting punted into a ditch meaning that the emergency services didn't find it straight away as they were dealing with the occupants of car number two.
There were witnesses in the three vehicles that were hit along with a couple of pedestrians.
Civil claims usually have to wait till criminal cases get settled - higher burden of proof, don't want to prejudice a criminal case by admitting liability in the meantime.
It does give you time to get the value of your claims agreed subject to liability. When the offending driver is convicted, liability is conceded and payment should be quick.
Presumably the innocent drivers own insurers have done their vehicle damage claims if fully comprehensive, and its the uninsured losses that are outstanding.
What do your relatives insurers say about it?
However, his insurance company are contesting the claim. How can this be?
Because they're an insurance company.
if the insurance company underwriters are markerstudy then its because they can and are ****s.
My dad was hit in similar circumstances only the van didnt cut the corner - it totally misjudged it trying to go round too fast and hit my dads motorbike with his passenger side wing - thats how far across the road he was .......
WITH several cameras footage with GPS data showing the bikes on the correct side of the road and were doing 30mph taking it sedately
Thats being contested FFS no wonder premiums are so high.
My mum, my aunt, my sister and nephew were in a car that was hit from behind while static at a roundabout five years ago. The insurance company are still contesting every detail.
My aunt is dead nearly a year now. **** load of good any settlement will do her.
I wonder if insurers who know their driver is at fault are this tardy if the innocent party engages the services of a claims management company. I suspect not.
Thats being contested FFS no wonder premiums are so high.
Indeed. Quite a few years ago I was knocked off whilst cycling round a roundabout when a pickup truck drove straight onto it without looking. The insurance company settled in the end but they began their offer letter with the sentence 'While we do not accept that our client was fully at fault...'. I almost rejected it on a point of principle, but couldn't be arsed with the hassle.
MoreCash is right, waiting for court to judge before completing administration,
one explanation could be it's probably an insurer that has a 3rd party contractual agreement with another firm to provide claims mgt services, so they are saying no to everything as a matter of course to protect their agreement...
An update. He has admitted liability.
My sister is well chuffed as she was in the first car and he was initially claiming that she was on the wrong side of the road.
MoreCash is right
I'm keeping that quote, as it doesn't happen often on here and it's 20 years since I left accident litigation. Claims management companies and no win no fee weren't even invented!