On the 3rd of January i was travelling home, a red peugeot 206 was coming up the road towards me then without warning she turns across my path into a side street (on my side of the road) I saw her child in the passenger seat and did my best not to hit him and i smashed into her rear quarter and rear wheel. I was straight out of my car and over to hers, main concern being the little boy, but everyone was ok, we talked and i even tried to get her vehicle recovered, i did everything i could to help.

She will not admit liability, my car has been written off, her car has been repaired, im being harrassed by her solicitors even though i have told them time and time again not to contact me contact my solicitors! Shes claiming for damages to her vehicle and personal injury from me!

I have also received a letter this morning for her solicitors saying shes claiming for the little boy aswell

Also in her statement shes saying that "she could not complete her turn because i hit her from the rear"

Can anyone give me some advice before i call round and give her a mouthfull

 

I had a similar one like that. Bloke pulled out in front of me and I couldnt avoid him. Hit him in the middle of his car. He got some 'no win no fee' company on the case and said that I'd shunted him up the a**e!! Totally changed the way the accident happened.
Best thing to do mate is let her have her own medicine. Get hold of one of these solicitor companies and let her have it.
I was sooo worried that I was gonna get dragged through the courts, until I contacted one of these companies. Soon as I did that the other party pretty much backed down right away.
If she is prepared to put you through all that s**t after a little shunt were you weren't to blame, let her have both barrels mate.

Claim for everything you feel you can and don't worry, it'll take time, but it'll come round.

regards
andy

 

Give the letters to your insurance (not your solicitors) - they will deal with it - that is what you pay them for.

Do NOT get into correspondance with her solicitors or give her a mouthfull otherwise your insurers may decide you have compromised their position and refuse to insure you.

 

Im not using my insurance mate, it took them a week to realise i had legal protection!

Im using www.helphire.co.uk they have been spot on, even my insurance recomended using them, they have gimme a hire car, sent an engineer to write mine off

Im trying to get hold of the copper that stopped to see if we were ok, he gave her a mouthfull saying she should have judged the distance of my vehicle and also said he would back me up, fingers crossed!

 

Of course you have legal protection - your insurance!!! Its not just for them paying for repairing the bent bits off your car m8. You pay for them to defend claims against you as in effect, they are defending themselves against that claim - their money.

Legal protection is (other than a money making scam) for YOU to make (reasonable) claims off her for things that are not covered under your motor insurance - such as hire cars, taxis, days off work for which you are not paid getting your car sorted etc.

She is making a claim off you and you are insured. Let them deal with it.

 

By all means get the coppers details to the insurers btw and help them.

 

Yeah that's fair enough that the insurance have their own legal team to cover it but it's still gutting when you are involved in a shunt and the other team basically lie just to claim compensation. I had that a long while ago. 5mph shunt at some traffic lights, I was at the back of a line of 4 or 5 cars, each hit the one in front until I came in and nudged the rearmost one. The two cars ahead of me claimed whiplash injuries and blamed me, even though they had crashed their own cars into the ones in front first. Lying ****ing *******s, and the insurance companies encourage it. I wrote to my insurance saying they are totally lying and I deny any responsibility for any injuries at all. I said I'd be happy to go to court to say so. What did my insurance do? They went and accepted liability for an easy life. *******s.

 

Sadly these are the times we live in - when an accident happens now, rather than people thinking 'is everyone OK' the first thing they do is think 'how much cash can I get out of this'.

The amount of times I've heard of people involved in minor accidents, who suffer no injury, yet as soon as they get home and a few of their mates tell them to fake whiplash or back problems, and they see a 'claims direct' type ad on TV, and suddenly they are paralysed from the neck down.

 

Yeah, it's very simple - but sometimes this can easily be missed.

She was on the wrong side of the road heading in the wrong direction.

It's her duty of care to ensure it's safe to cross lanes.

- case closed.

Make sure your solicitors and your insurance company understand that statement in it's totality. There are no ambiguities in this scenario whatsoever. You will win.

As has been echoed here before - have no telephone conversation, no correspondance, no email - zero contact with her or her solicitors - do not allow their solicitors to 'draw' you into discussing details. Simply tell them you will be putting the phone down on them immediately everytime they call - and do so without discussion. Do not EVEN read the letters from their solicitors - forward them unopened.

Tell your solicitors and your insurance company you are not accepting liability under any circumstances - and let the courts deal with it.

 

Thanks for the advice everyone

I have been in contact with the police trying to track down the officer who attended the scene and left a message for him to call me back, i just hope he does!

 

Unfortunately, all the insurance companies are interested in these days is the "total cost of the claim". If a claim is going to cost £100,000 to pursue and have settled in their favour, but only £50,000 to pay off the other party without going to court, they will always go for the latter.

You should only be concerned by this if this affects who the accident is blamed upon, otherwise the insurance company can argue they are doing the right thing and keeping next year's insurance cost down.

You pay your premiums so let them sort it out for you, even if they don't do it in the way you expect.

Best of luck.

 

Was in an accident in April 02 in which I broke my neck. It took until January 2004 for the other person to accept liabilityand it was June 2005 before the case was settled.

Go back to the site of the accident and take pictures, draw a diagram on A3 paper of what happened. If she pulled across your path, she is at fault. Try to get a copy of her statement, look for contradictions and anything you can prove is a lie.

If what you say is true it sounds like she is trying it on and her lawyers are putting pressure on you so that you give in and pay up.

And remember - insurance companies and compo lawyers have no morals, so niether should you.

ewan

 

Might sound fully, but u have considered knocking on any nearby houses to see if they can rememer the incident, the location of the cars, the temperment of the woman, the police attending etc?? You could always make a report to the police stating what had happened, as she now says its an injury accident, as such the police are legally obliged to investigate it!!! Get her done for driving without due care and attention and beg the officer to prosecute her, will do wonders for your case, and ermmm trust me!

 

Do you have any pictures of the accident scene? My wife was involved in an accident at night and the other driver failed to stop at the scene so we went back the following day in daylight and took lots of photos of the scene. when the case went to court 18 months later her solicitors used my photos and the other drivers solicitors weren't aware that I had this evidence as well as photos of his car because he worked in the building behind mine. She won it in court easily

 

The only photo i have of the scene is off my phone, not very good either but the picture does show where both cars landed after the accident.

PIC:


Hers is the red 206, you can see where i hit her rear quarter and spun her round to where she stopped. Im still waiting for the officer who stopped at the scene to contact me.

Hostagewrx, there isnt any houses near the scene, just a hand car wash and a childrens nursery, i have been to see if there was an CCTV but didnt ask if anyone saw it mainly because the officer who stopped said he would back me up if it went to court.

 

I think that picture says enough Have you emailed that to either of the insurance companies. I'm sure yours would like to see that. Go back and take more photos though and show where you were coming from etc.

 

Yes paul, i included that in the diagram of the accident that asked me to draw, as far as im concerned if i can get a statement off the officer then its case closed.

 

Plus i think one of the most upsetting things is i really cherished my car, even though it was only an escort, it was MY escort that i polished and never wanted for anything....


Even though it was written off, I have paid out of my own pocket for the parts and repair of the car also sporting a GTi front bumper....



But have since found that the alloy on the damaged side is buckled beyond repair and it just doesnt feel the same

 

Yep, give it all to your insurance company and make it clear you that you have NO intention of accepting any degree of liability (so they don't try and settle on a knock for knock basis). Let them deal with it.

Dont let the ambulance chases make you sweat mate.

Ns04

 

You would have thought so wouldn't you Sometimes these insurance companies don't have a clue. There was no way that my wife's case should have ever got as far as court but they just wouldn't listen to anything we said. The judge just pulled him (the third party) apart though

The car looks sweet

 

Thats why i have started the chase the police officer myself, i even have the days and time hes on duty, hes off tomorrow but i will chase him on tuesday when hes on a 8am to 6pm shift lol

 

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAASSSSSS!!!!

Just got off the phone to the officer that attended.

Hes going to supply my solicitor with a statement of facts, also said she doesnt have a leg to stand on and he will back me all the way

 

Good news fella

 

nice one

 

Good one, hope it all works out for you !
Forgot to say dont be put of by threating / bully boy / scare tatics of her solictors, and definately check every letter for inconsitances !

Richard

 

Andy,
Put your request in a letter.
You don't use phone calls to sort out important legal matters, as you have no proof they ever took place.

Cheers
MTR

 

Hiya martin

My solicitor sent a letter to them yesterday requesting they so not contact me anymore, anything else from them will just be passed onto my solicitor.

 

hang about late spot, someone seems please about a police attendance here hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm makes a change eh!

 

i've been in this scenario before. I was hit by a car that crossed the white lines onto my side of the road on a steep bend.

i claimed she was on the wrong side of the road. they claimed that it was me driving too fast crossing the lines.

neither of us had witness' so our insurance companies settled 50:50. Ie we both claimed off our own insurance and not on the other party as no liability could be established without independant witness'

you do however have a statement from a police officer on your side. Expect her insurance company to fight tooth and nail over it however. The officer who attended probably wont be a qualified accident investigator, he may not even be traffic police. Nor did he actually witness the event. The other insurance company have lots to argue about.

you would think something as simple as turning across traffic when there isnt room is obvious liablity. but then i thought some1 crossing the white lines onto my side of the road was clear cut too. I even had photos taken after the accident showing where my car was, where the point of impact was, where the broken glass was, where the skid mark was etc.. none of it mattered.

as there are no witness' and no actual CCTV footage of the event (photograph doesnt show much) your insurance companies may settle 50:50 like mine did. Heres hoping they dont but your insurance company may decide not to go to court and settle 50:50 if it cant be sure of winning ...

 

I will not be happy if they go 50:50, my solicitor is quite certain they will back down after the police statement and engineer statement has been submitted.