car accident help

LornaGrace

Full Member
hi, i wondered if anyone has any help/advice they can give me!
I had a car accident last year, a driver was indicating to turn - but didnt actually make the maneuver, i pulled out and went into him, i know i am stupid for trusting an indicator, and still dont know why i did - im soo mad at myself. So anyway, i had a witness that saw everything (even his indicator on). Until i got a letter from my solicetor saying that the witness didnt want to be involved anymore (why come forward as a witness and then not want to be involved baffles me). so my solicitor has advised me to settle the case on a "without prejudice basis". she told me that "the claimant will receive damages in full but we will specifically state that liability is not admitted. The matter will then be settled" (which isnt much help)

So that is the end of it?
so who takes the liability?
and can they refuse to settle until i take full blame?

any help/advice i would be gratefull for. (sorry for bad spelling/punctuation) xxx
 
Perhaps someone has got at them and so made him withdraw from being a witness.I would get your solicitor to find out why they won't be inolved any more.Has the witness already given a statement to what happened?
Is this through legal cover with your insurers?

apparently they gave their details to the police to be a witness, but when contacted by my solicetor they dont want to be involved and give no reason. (sorry - i might not have explained very well)

Yes its through legal cover with my insurer.

x
 
You covered on your insurance, you still have to pay a excess.... I would just let it go and move on.... This has already gone on a year.... You wont have to settle the calm the insurance company will thats why we pay them the money for our cover....

"liability is not admitted" - Your saying that it wasnt your fault and that is noted, so let it be processed then you dont have to think about it over christmas.
 
Just find out from your insurers what changes this would make in your insurance in the future.Also do you have no claims if so I wouldn't worry about it.You won't have to pay, your insurance company will.

Hope you don't mind me asking how much is the claim for?

I would tell you but i don't know - Should my insurance have told me this?

As its over a year since it happened i already renewed my insurance, it doubled in price. Maybe after its settled it will go back down?

I was in my fourth year of driving which means i couldn't cover my no claims :( i have to start again
 
You covered on your insurance, you still have to pay a excess.... I would just let it go and move on.... This has already gone on a year.... You wont have to settle the calm the insurance company will thats why we pay them the money for our cover....

"liability is not admitted" - Your saying that it wasnt your fault and that is noted, so let it be processed then you dont have to think about it over christmas.

yeah thats what i figured - thinking about it just gives me a headache.

I have said i will go with "liability is not admitted" option. I was just looking for a little more info... :)
 
Hello, I have dealt with car accidents for over 9 years and this is a common scenario. Without the witness there is no way that you could prove the third party was indicating ( its unfortunate that there sw lots of untruthful people out there, I deal with it every day) . As your insurers have dealt with it on a wop basis, they will pay the other claim in full and I will go down as a fault claim as your insurers have paid out. Even if you had a witness. Proving the indication it would be classed as 66% resposibilty for you and 33% for the other driver, and would also affect your no claims discount and insurance. I believe the caselaw we.use is wadsworth v gillespie. You can find details online . XXX
 
I forgot to say that without prejudice basically means that your insurers could not get your consent to accept liability and if further info comes to.light at a later date. E.g. witness comes forward then your insurers could claim back the money from the claimant. However this never happens. Depending on how much the claim is for, if its a small amount you may wish to pay your insurers the money they have paid in order to preserve you no claims discount but if you and the.other driver had lots of damage or there was an injury claim it would probably be loads as the garages charge insurers a fortune. I think you should let them deal and forget about it like the other poster said.
 
For future renewals, ask about having 'protected bonuses', you pay a bit more for it but well worth it. I had an accident (my fault) 3 years ago & because I had protected bonuses it didn't affect my premiums.:D
 
This might seem like a daft question but when you renewed did you look about for other insurance? I bumped a car in the works car park, entirely my fault, I have full protected no claims BUT when it came to renewing my premiums doubled too.

I rang the company straight away to find out why when I had protected no claims, and was basically told "Imagine if you didn't have protected no claims, it's the best you'll find." I had a quick look about and found better cover, my no claims still protected with free courtesy car, legal cover etc for £25 more than I was paying before my bump. So it is worth looking about, it's a pain in the backside but it saved me £500.

As for finding out how much the claim is you can ask for the information. I did, and considering all I did was scratch the paint of the other car, no damage to mine it came back at £2600!!! I just laughed because the insurance company had been royally ripped off.

Hope you get it sorted, it's really stressful, and mine only went on for 3 months.
 
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