Hey folks, I was victim to an accident last week where by while waiting at a traffic light with my mother I was hit in the rear by the chap behind. To his credit he apologised and has accepted complete liability. I am currently on Third party fire and theft with legal cover but I fear my legal cover is only to stop me from getting sued and not for me to claim whiplash for? anyone know if this is usually the case on third party fire and theft? Also.. His insurance company have even given me a courtersy car while they took mine for repair. Unforunately my car is beyond economic repair I have learnt with the costs being higher than its value so within the next few days I expect them to call and offer me a settlement for it. Furthermore I injured my lower back in the accident and its got to a point where its really painful. My insurance company referred me to some solicitors to deal with my whiplash claim telling me they dont charge me anything and I get to keep the settlement. However I have recieved correspondance from them now stating they do charge for their services and im a little confused by it all really. It appears they take their fees if i win. Im in a situation here whereby I could very well go to court and probably win but the solicitors will take a fair chunk by the looks of it....should my legal cover not cover this even on third party fire and theft legal cover? His insurance companys injury department did get hold of me to try arrange physio theraphy but I mentioned I had solicitors involved and they said they would leave me to it then at this point without intervening. My only reason for claiming is yes I have hurt my back and it is quite painful but also my write-off fee for my car is going to be less and the inconvienience of it all is going to impact me quite badly. The whiplash compensation could help towards getting a decent replacement vehicle. My dilema is this ; what do I do? Do i got ahead with the claim? shouldnt the other chaps insurance be paying my solicitor fee's since he was liable? Do i try deal direct with them again and see what they say? Should i try haggle my cars value higher and ask to drop the whiplash case if they meet my valuation? Any tips on the matter would be great...
they would love for you to haggle the car up and then waiver the injury claim.. if I was you I would do the car and (assuming your injury isn't too bad and your sure to recover), ask for a settlement in trade for the waiver.. you should be able to get around 10k- I would come at them with 15k for any future back problems, along with bluebook value for the car in mint condition and work from there they just want you off thier books.. but then again I dunno how it works in england- come to think of it with your nhs, your already covered medically so I'm not sure you could work the medical bills angle.. can't hurt to try though, that would be easy money over here when I was younger, I used to just take the rental car, fix my truck- maybe take 500 dollars for the waiver.. but I've learned you can get so much more if your persistent it's insurance money don't feel bad.. they rip you off for years- be happy to see the money come back
Maybe it's different where you live, but here in oz any injuries caused by a road accident are covered by the insurance paid in the yearly vehicle registration fee. So if your situation happened over here, his insurance looks after paying you for your car, and the state road insurance fully covers all and any injury related expenses (such as operations at a private hospital, physio, chiro, any drugs purchased from the local chemist, etc) for the rest of your life, AND, they pay you 80% of what you were earning per week until you return to work. And that's not all either, once your injuries have "stabilized", you are assesed, and if there are any permanent scars or any physical impairments at all, you are paid compensation. But again, that's how it is over here in Australia - the country that was invaded, taken over, and used as a slave labour prison camp, for a little while anyway.
It's really up to you in the end, but the fact he apologised, admitted fault and seems genuine about it would mean a lot to me. It really depends on you how you feel about it, but in the same position i know i'd be backing away from the litigation-side mostly due to him being a very rare example of what appears to be a genuinely nice person here.* *I admit i might be wrong, but this is the impression from the post that i'm getting. I also admit it might be naive, but i know i'm prone to that
Yeah totally awesome of him. In all honesty I think he was on the phone when he crashed into me and wasnt watching the traffic lights. He apologised, gave me his business card and said we'l sort it out and he will accept liability. Hes on business insurance and his car was a business car so it isnt like it will affect him directly. I was happy with that but now my car is about to be written off and im on the verge of being out of pocket by a significant amount. I bought my car for £1300 last year and had I traded it in for a new car which was my plan, I would have got £2000 under the scrappage scheme at least! Now I will probably be lucky to break the £1000. I have injured my back but I am reluctant to get into the litigation side because of all the hassle but if it means im going to get out of pocket then I may have no choice...I only want enough to replace my car to a good standard. Me getting sod all for my car and then sueing them for grands and grands isnt what I want, I would be happy with £4k for both my car and injuries to my mother and myself which allows me to replace my car then to a fair amount with no problems! Just not sure how to deal with this really..
Why don't you use a different legal firm that does no win no fee and doesn't take any of your settlement? Remember you will not be suing him, your suing his works insurance company.
Just to update: I have agreed to setlte the claim directly for little over £6k in total. The chap I dealt with was really quite helpful and that did sway my opinion on the matter and I'm really quite happy with that amount! £4100 for myself and I keep the car too! £2400 for my mothers injuries. Cheque is in the post today- will arrive next week! Case closed it seems!
Have you and your mum been checked out by at least one doctor? (not provided for by the insurance company) There are people that have received injuries in an accident, and need attention for years and years. Hopefully you two don't, but for some a settlement of £6k would be an absolute bargain for the insurance company.
Let's not get greedy now. If his main worries are about sufficient compensation for his car then his back can't be that bad.
Agreed to some extent. My main concerns are my car and being able to sufficiently replace it but the inconvinience of it all was the major thing. I did hurt my back and as of writing this it has been hurting since day 2 after the accident, even my mothers - its like we experienced a sudden jolt and it is purely aches from it. I think it should recover but im not sure how long it will take but my focus is on every day life. I dont want to be greedy either, we could push them for more but then it would be stretching the truth if we said our lives were severely impacted from the crash. They have become a bit more painful but something I think time should help heal and the compensation given even they said was nice of us to accept. His exact words were "I wish everyone was as willing to be modest like yourself, it would make my job so much easier" In fact I thought they were the modest ones, accidents do happen and if there is payouts that help make the misery of it go away for those not at fault without anyone losing too much and no one being too greedy - thats the fair then I believe.
Good news on the getting a replacement car front. I can't help but feel that you need to both get your backs looked at straight away though. It may just be internal bruising, but best to get checked out.
ah solidus.. what he meant by making his life easy was- he was calling you a sucker especially with real injuries.. people over here fake injuries for a fender bender- you were in a pretty serious accident from the sounds of it- telling you, coulda got double that if you just asked for it
Not saying he should be greedy. It's just that some injuries, such as damage to the spine, can get worse over time, so Solidus could possibly be entitled to a much bigger payout. So have you and your mum been checked out by at least one independent doctor Solidus?
Yeah we went to see a doctor and were told its just bruising and to take anti-inflamatorys to ease the pain and it should subside. They said it should be fine and he had no concerns in letting us go. I havnt taken any medication for it just yet because my body tempreture rises allot when I do...but its available if it ever gets too painful atleast.
tldr: but if you have genuinely hurt yourself make a claim all costs will go on his insurance (business) the guy should have been more careful apology or not. i crashed into someone 18 months ago and i know for a fact they did not hurt themselves, they took a week off work and claimed fro everything under the sun. i lost my no claims but it didnt really affect me any more than that. if he was genuinely on the phone he will not mind that you claim. he will just be happy that you do not mention it in any questioning which because he was courtious (sp?) i would leave out, i bet he will be moe careful in the future
It's all about the money these days, thats what imporant. I hit someone at 3mph and somehow there car is an insurance write off, and they have a minor whiplash claim, ergo they make a fortune, I feel bad about the accident and feel like such a criminal cos I get a call from the police and threatened by solicitors when SHE drove away from the scene. Dreading what my insurance will go up to. I could have fixed her car myself and given her some stretching exercises. It appears people can walk away from smashing a rally car, but can't take a 3mph bump!? She was fine, just milking the situation beyond it's worth acting like she was effectlivly crippled, and then I she her driving around the town in the same car like nothing happened. Sorry for the rant but my goodness, what a greedy world!
Two winters ago I was walking to my car on the ice while carrying the keys firmly in the right hand. I slipped in full stride, did a 360 degree flip in the air and fell directly on my left shoulder. My head whipped against the shoulder first before hitting the ground with a thud. For a second I blacked out and woke with terrible neck pain, limped back to the house lived with the left tilt in my neck for the rest of the winter. Later on my entire left shoulder went completely numb due the 5th vertibera in my neck pinching against nerves. Three visits from the chiropractor later and two years of healing my shoulder is no longer randomly numbs up while shoveling dirt and the upper neck is straight. The neck is still sore and prone to injury. Sometimes my lower back will shift out of alignment and require a skilled chiropractor to get back in line. The pain in my back and neck can rival that of a dentist drilling a tooth without anesthetic. If the pain is too much my chiropractor can realign my spine. A week later of light work and I can do anything on the farm. For all you people complaining about lower back pain after a minor fender-bender or call up a whiplash claim at 3mph collision need to toughen up and take some some aspirin. Whiplash is not a minor injury and I was very close to being paralyzed from the neck down. If someone totaled my car in a fender bender claiming whiplash over a sore back that neither prevents my ability to walk and work is fraud. Do want you want Solidus but if you have a conscious calling the solicitor and dropping the whiplash claim is the right thing to do. It will effect you by increasing the car insurance premium for everyone who drives on the road.
I wouldnt call it fraud at all. Had the chap not crashed into me I wouldnt have been at such an inconvienience from the whole ordeal. My back hurts when I sit down, it hurts while I drive, my shoulder blade causes me pain - none of this would have happened if the chap didnt crash into me. Just to clarify, it wasnt a minor hit, the ca rhe was in was a Mazda RX8 and hit me at some speed considerable speed - enough to write-off the car. To make things worse I sat there at the traffic lights looking into my rear view mirror as he approuched wondering why he was coming so fast...up until the last second before he hit me I realised he wasnt going to stop and felt trapped - A big lorry directly in front, no room to manuvere and frozen knowing what was about to happen - My mother in the passenger seat. Psychologically it has had an impact too - Im no panick stricken person and after this crash I always keep looking in my rear view mirror with my heart in my mouth at every stop now...it has had an impact on me. So tell me - they write off my car and give me lower than the value and im now out of pocket, injured back and shoulder - I think the settlement is fair and I could have asked for more but I didnt, just enough to cover my expenses from the whole ordeal.
Jesus christ. When did people lose all sense of decency? Soldius, I'm sure that it sucks to be inconvenienced, but the guy apoligised. He said he was sorry and as far as I've read, it doesn't seem like you're being negatively affected financially by this whole thing. So why does everyone just treat any minor injury these days as an opportunity to extort money out of people who've done something accidentally. People these days try to claim thousands of tens of thousands of pounds/euros/dollars and then say they deserve it because they were inconvenienced or suffered "emotional trauma". It's sickening. Yes, and I'm sure bagloads of money will fix that. It'll come in real handy for the medical bills, what with England not having the NHS an' all. The moral thing to do here is to find out exactly how much it's going to cost you to get all your property replaced, and demand that. Not more. Also, despite my tone, sorry to hear about the accident. Hope your recovery is speedy
It costs 45 dollars to see a private physical chiropractor in South Portland, Maine. The three visits in additional to the two or three times I see him every year brings it to 270 dollars or 168 pounds. The difference between a physical chiropractor and months of physical therapy at a hospital is all the work is done at once. You leave in more pain than you started with and have to careful to let your back heal over a couple weeks. As for your lower back pain it could be caused by spinal subluxation and the nerves are hurting from the excess pressure. If your getting sharp pain in the legs the nerve running along the lower spine is pinched due to misalignment. This is a very common injury in field workers, farmers, construction and lifting very heavy objects without leg support. You asked for a large amount of money for a very common back injury. I am sorry that you had to go through a traffic accident but you asked for too much money to cover the injuries.
