Accident 2 months ago :(

[MDC250]

Insurers love to fight claims on the grounds it was a Low Velocity Accident, there are tons of litigated cases going through the Courts day in day out. It used to be that it boiled down to the credibility of the Claimant on the day. Not as much now and a lot more weight is attached to engineering evidence, medical evidence etc.

The Courts here can penalise a Claimant if they assist passengers to pursue a claim when they were not injured. They tend to take it out of their damages meaning they walk away with less and sometimes nothing.

Insurers can and do go after people who bring dodgy claims that are kicked out in litigation. In extreme cases they will seek committal proceedings to try and get custodial sentences through to charges on property to include compelled sales etc.

Long story short if an insurer is up for a fight they will run a case even if it costs loads. All you can do is what you have and give them as much info to fight the claims as possible.

Good luck, I hope it turns out well in the end.

 

[IanA2]

Insurers love to fight claims on the grounds it was a Low Velocity Accident, there are tons of litigated cases going through the Courts day in day out. It used to be that it boiled down to the credibility of the Claimant on the day. Not as much now and a lot more weight is attached to engineering evidence, medical evidence etc.

The Courts here can penalise a Claimant if they assist passengers to pursue a claim when they were not injured. They tend to take it out of their damages meaning they walk away with less and sometimes nothing.

Insurers can and do go after people who bring dodgy claims that are kicked out in litigation. In extreme cases they will seek committal proceedings to try and get custodial sentences through to charges on property to include compelled sales etc.

Long story short if an insurer is up for a fight they will run a case even if it costs loads. All you can do is what you have and give them as much info to fight the claims as possible.

Good luck, I hope it turns out well in the end.

My experience is that generally they won't fight. Over the last fifteen years I've had two incidents when they rolled over. The first was when I rolled very gently into a Sierra in a queue. There was almost no contact but the guy jumped out and said that a new bumper would cost £328 plus labour! The second was a woman who rolled into me in a Waitrose car park. When I got out there was no damage to either car, she went off like rocket screamingly and shouting. To shut her up I gave her £50. Big mistake, she somehow managed to provide a witness and the insurers coughed up about £800. Neither case was contested. Lastly, after I had parked up in a well known car accessory shop, I was accosted by a chap who informed me that I had damaged his gazebo (used to fit batteries etc) and a new one would cost £640. He pointed to the "scrape" on my car as proof, this was mud that I rubbed off! I reported this to the NFU and said that he was clearly trying it on. They agreed and said that they would fight it, but in the end we never heard from them.

 

[AnimMerc]

I had a similar incident albeit the person behind was parked on diagonals and blocked me in I slightly tapped there front bumper and what a fuss they made. I left the scene but took a photo of their car and gave them my reg as it was right outside my daughter's school and the other party was swearing and getting aggressive (must be the first time I have wanted to knock a woman out).

Anyway I reported it to the police and my insurance. The other party tried to pursue a case and her partner kept calling me I pointed out that his partner was parked illegally and that I had photos of their car and I would let my insurance deal with it.

The police 1. Gave them my number 2. stated that I was at fault and verified the damage on their car. That was until I went to the police station and queried this with the photo's that I had.

As for my insurance I showed the the photos of their car and someone came and took photos of mine which had no damage and the damage on theirs was old rusted scrapes at a height my car could not have reached.
Now although my insurance was umming and arring. I told them that if it was to go to court I would quite happily attend and my defence would be 1. They were parked illegally and 2. The damage on their car could not have been done by me.

I heard nothing from them and that was over 2 years ago.
So my advice is dispute it on those very grounds. I understand that the law is soon to be changed on Personal injury claims very soon.

 

[MDC250]

I guess I should qualify my earlier comments.

If an insurer wants to fight they will, they will however sometimes take an economical view on a case by case basis.

Where we are talking about damage only, then the claim would usually be a small claim, unless value is high. As such the worst they are usually in for is whatever the claim is pleaded at plus the Court Issue Fee and fixed costs (minimal). I guess sometimes not worth fighting these cases as limited recoverability of insurers legal fees but they should even if just to take stand.

Throw a personal injury claim into the mix where the injury is over £1k then you are into the Fast Track and costs are recoverable. This makes it more risky for both sides.

LVI claims/arguments have been prevalent for some time, driven by the fact that some insurers have close connections to Continental Insurers, e.g Allianz who are rooted in Germany as I understand (in Germany if an accident is proven to occur below a certain speed then there is no claim for PI no matter what harsh IMO, each case should fall on its own merits).

Judges are not stupid. If you try and run a case with proven limited damage to the vehicle(s), the medical evidence has no objective indicators of injury and credibility is poor the claim will be dismissed. Insurers and even Judges of their own volition will seek sanctions on bent claims and rightly so. Fraudsters give genuinely injured people a bad name.

The irony in all of this for me is Insurers bleat about being ripped off when it is they who are selling the claims to Claims Management Companies in the first place. Recent changes mean referral fees can no longer be paid but there is a quick workaround...the insurers sets up an Alternative Business Structure with a Law Firm and then the money passing within the business is not a referral. Most insurers have or will buy/tie into partnership with firms of Solicitors.

They can't or rather shouldn't have their cake...

 

[buster651]

agree with above
possible action?
keep all evidence and when your insurance goes up take the taxi driver and passenger to the small claims court
plus
perhaps send copies to taxi license issuing authority and police fraud office

you may not be the first

it would also only be -fair- to notify them of your future intentions

 

[schneckster]

If this "friend" works in the same place as you, talk to your boss about it. Where I work, they take a dim view of fraudulent activity outside of work (a question of trust & integrity, etc.) and might well haul him in to occupational health to be assessed ;o)That might be enough to make him see sense and stop being silly. With his claim gone, the taxi driver suddenly looks less credible, too.

 

[Greek God]

I don't know why ins companies are so reluctant to take a stand on this. I had a similar case - slid off an icy roundabout at +/- 5 mph and bumped a VW van on the front offside wheel arch. Cracked my plastic bumper and slight scrape to his - total claim over 13k settled by insurance despite full photoset and witness evidence ! The scumsucking no fee lawyers need to take a lot of the blame but if the law was more robust they wouldnt find it so easy.
I also have fitted a dash cam as a consequence and actually get a 10% ins discount !

 

[MDC250]

Did you find out how the £13k was broken down? Not defending it far from but suspect a big chunk of that was probably credit hire...

 

[jam38]

A friend of mine owns a bodyshop/repairs garage. He tells me that the amount of people trying to claim when there is nothing wrong is ridiculous. He told me one story of a guy who lied about how many people were in his car when an accident occurred. It went to court and low and behold the chap lost and is awaiting sentencing along with his fellow 'claimers'. The law firm that was representing them also made a case against him for costs of £75,000 and his house is currently being reprocessed.

Serves them right if I'm honest with you.

 

[RWDpetrol]

Re insurance companies fighting for you or not, it also depends on who the others are insured with. I had an accident with two other cars, insurers in all were NatWest, Directline and Churchill - all owned by UK Insurance Ltd.

 

[RWDpetrol]

I've added reluctantly a dash cam this year to try to have some protection against this sort of thing. I would have difficulty remaining calm in this sort of situation.

I'm thinking the same. Any recommendations?

 

[kalvin928]

I'm thinking the same. Any recommendations?

Full HD 1080P Mini Driver Recorder GS608.. bought this off amazon but now returned.. so many problems with it... now have decided on:
1.5" LCD 1080P G-sensor HD DV Car DVR Cam Dash Video Recorder Night Vision | eBay

had good reviews... so will see. ordered...

 

[NDFR]

I'm thinking the same. Any recommendations?

I bought this one, it sits behind the rear view mirror out of the way. The mini screen is enough to watch the picture immediately and the night time quality is great.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00F5WPB2K/?tag=amazon0e9db-21

 

[RWDpetrol]

I bought this one, it sits behind the rear view mirror out of the way. The mini screen is enough to watch the picture immediately and the night time quality is great.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/E-PRANCE-Original-Ambarella-Recorder-Resolution/dp/B00F5WPB2K/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1388608977&sr=1-4&keywords=dash+cam+0801

Is the quality good? I was thinking of this one but got distracted reading Police Witness website. They say many dash cams are poor quality and don't even capture number plates clearly.

 

[NDFR]

Is the quality good? I was thinking of this one but got distracted reading Police Witness website. They say many dash cams are poor quality and don't even capture number plates clearly.

I have just bought a new car and have ordered another one to put in it. It's the only one I have ever used so I can't really say what others are like but this one is great. Number plate capture is great.

 

[R W]

Unfortunately we now live in a society full of scammers, any way to make a claim & they are onto it.
Many years ago I was driving a company van & had to reverse over a footpath into an alley. My colleague got out the van & watched me back over the pavement & down the alley. Two mins later this man arrives asking my details & the company details. He claimed I reversed into him as he was walking. I explained there was no way I reversed into him, firstly I never saw this man, secondly my colleague who was behind the van didn’t see him ether. Even if I had reversed into him I was traveling at less than walking pace as I was crossing the high curb.
Two hrs later the police arrived at the company office, the man had been to the hospital claiming bruised ribs & reported the “accident” to the police. The police took my statement & added this man has a history of making bogus claims, but as he had reported it they had to follow it up.
I don’t know the outcome of it but probably he got a payout from the insurance company as these type of people are well versed in making claims.

 

[Dieselman]

I doubt he would make a successful claim with your witness saying he wasn't there.

It's hard enough making a genuine claim.