accepting liability problems

[Rahul]

Hi

 

my boyfriend was in a accident on 1st July, he was knocked off his motorbike by a car who didn't see him. the car driver is failing to accept liability, which is making his insurance+personal injury claim difficult (can't get an interim payment)

 

he is still off work, he has injured both his wrists, knees and ankles (soft tissue damage) which is still very painful and not healed. we are obviously struggling for money (i am a poor student) as his sick pay doesn't cover his rent, let alone anything else.

 

the driver is being prosecuted as she didn't have a license, no insurance and driving without due care and attention (or something along those lines)

 

essentially, is there any way we can get her to hurry up and accept liability? do we have to wait until the case goes to court? is there any way we can get some money/help? I don't really know how these claims work, like timescales and stuff, and the solicitor is a tad slow.

 

the other major problem is that the motorbike has been written off as cat c damaged, and has been at the garage ever since. the garage has been charging storage of £15 a day, which we were never told about. (the mechanic said he thought the insurance would pay it, so he didn't chase us up about it.) apparently the insurance doesn't cover it as its only 3rd party. as we were never informed about these storage costs, do we have a comeback here? we can't afford to pay these charges

 

thanks for any help, please ask if you need anything clarifying

[sailor sam]

Hi,

 

This situation seems very strange to me.

First of all if the other driver was not insured ect, what difference will it make if she admits liability or not? The fact that she was driving totally illegally makes her liable so your insurance should be helping you so

the obvious question here is what has your insurers said? They should either be persuing the other driver or advised you accordingly. Obviously the police are involved so what have they said about claiming damages/compensation either through the court or criminal compensation scheme?

 

Who asked the garage to recover the bike? In any event you should'nt be responsible for the storage charges so don't worry about those. If the bike has been written off, then you should be getting paid out for it.

 

The bottom line here is that because you have third party cover, your insurers would claim aginst the third party's insurers in the event of their driver being liable. Obvioulsy if they arn't insured then this can't happen. But never the less, your insures should be helping you more than they obviously am in this.

 

I would get in touch with the police and ask them about claiming damages through via the prosecution process. If that seems to be unlikely, seek out a solicitor who specializes motor insurance claims and see what they advise. They should offer you an initial free consultaion. This may result in persuing the un-insured driver via the civil courts for all you losses.

 

If you answer my points, I may be able to advise you further.

[Wulfyn]

I'm assuming that you only have Third Party insurance? This would explain why you cannot claim on your own insurance policy.

 

 

I'm not sure what the liability issue is here, unless you are trying to make the other driver personally pay for your losses. This is something that you are legally entitled to, but in reality people who drive without insurance tend not to have enough money to help you out.

 

 

Have you contacted MIB (Motor Insurer's Bereau)? This is a company set up by all UK motor insurers to help people who have suffered losses from an uninsured driver. Effectively you claim from the MIB, and they appoint one of the UK insurance companies to deal with the claim and make any payments to you (these costs are then passed on to all the people who buy insurance). Your insurance company should have notified you about this.

 

Welcome to the Motor Insurers' Bureau

[Rahul]

Hi,

 

This situation seems very strange to me.

First of all if the other driver was not insured ect, what difference will it make if she admits liability or not? The fact that she was driving totally illegally makes her liable so your insurance should be helping you so

the obvious question here is what has your insurers said? They should either be persuing the other driver or advised you accordingly. Obviously the police are involved so what have they said about claiming damages/compensation either through the court or criminal compensation scheme?

 

Who asked the garage to recover the bike? In any event you should'nt be responsible for the storage charges so don't worry about those. If the bike has been written off, then you should be getting paid out for it.

 

The bottom line here is that because you have third party cover, your insurers would claim aginst the third party's insurers in the event of their driver being liable. Obvioulsy if they arn't insured then this can't happen. But never the less, your insures should be helping you more than they obviously am in this.

 

I would get in touch with the police and ask them about claiming damages through via the prosecution process. If that seems to be unlikely, seek out a solicitor who specializes motor insurance claims and see what they advise. They should offer you an initial free consultaion. This may result in persuing the un-insured driver via the civil courts for all you losses.

 

If you answer my points, I may be able to advise you further.

 

right, the insurance issue as I understand it is that although the driver of the car was not insured, the owner and insurer of the car was in the vehicle at the time, not driving, so it is all covered and ok in that respect.

 

regarding the bike, it was taken to a police impound after the crash, as he was carted off to hospital in an ambulance. we went to see what condition it was in and couldn't get it started. so we phoned the RAC who took it to a local garage for us, and its been there ever since (obviously informing insurers etc where it was)

 

we have a solicitor, but everything is just taking ages and im not sure if its the norm or not. for example, we saw a medical expert type person who said he needed to see a psychologist (this was in august), and this won't be sorted out till january at the earliest.

 

and yes our insurance is 3rd party

[sailor sam]

Ah well, this changes things! If the driver was not insured to drive then the owner had aided and abbetted an un-insured driver. Your insurers should be able to claim off his insurance although he will not be able to claim for the damage to his car. So why isn't this happening? To be honest, this seems pretty much staight forward and clear cut to me so I don't know what your solicitors are doing! They seem to be waiting for all the medical reports to be completed so the calculate your claim but what are they doing about the bike? Have you asked them? Wulfyn's advice may be an option also but first I would start by asking your solicitor a few questions. Also ask your insurers if they can claim aginst the owner's insurance who, I would imagine is also being prosecuted.

[Endymion]

The third party insurers have 3 months from the confirmation of receipt of the letter of claim from your solicitors to make either an admission or denial of liability. There is nothing your solicitors can do to speed this up I am afraid. Once the three months is up you can issue proceedings immediately if no decision has been made (as long as you have a CPR compliant medical report), which will then force the insurer to make a decision within 28 days of service of the proceedings, unless an extension of time is granted by you.