Hi,

My girlfriend had an accident last year and I’m concerned about how long it’s taking for the case to be resolved. The solicitor is very rude and stern with my girlfriend on the phone to the point that she won’t ring him up anymore as she gets too upset when she speaks to him. Whenever she phones him up she gets told she’s wasting his time, and he will ring with any updates. The solicitors were appointed to her by her insurance company so she won’t change to a different firm as she doesn’t want to have to pay anything.

Last year (2009) her car was written off and she received a very small payout for the value of the car which we believe was too low, but this is beside the point. She had a very large excess £1,250 as she was a young driver so received next to nothing back. She’s also still seeing an osteopath and physiotherapist due to the injuries she sustained. She hasn’t been paying for these so I’m unsure how will be picking up the bill for these treatments. She also lost 3 years NCB.

The last thing the solicitor said (2 months ago) was that my girlfriend won’t admit blame and neither will the other company so we’re at stalemate and we just have to wait until one of the parties caves in. Should this now go to court? What’s a reasonable amount of time to wait? I expect the blame will be split 50/50, but we’re unsure of how to proceed. We’ve supposedly paid for legal help but they’re extremely unhelpful and won’t provide any updates or let us know if we should be doing anything, or even telling us what’s likely to happen in the future.

Can anyone offer any help please?

Thanks.

Dan,

The difficulty is with using Solicitors via your Insurance Company is that they are always members of their "Panel" i.e they have paid a decent fee to receive referalls and they will receive the work exclusively. Generally speaking, most Legal Expense Insurers (LEI'S) are extremely reluctant to send work to a Solicitor of their choosing.

At the outset of the case, you should have received some client care documents regarding the complaints procedure to be followed - if you are unhappy with the lack of communication, you should go down that route initially. It may then be that the file is allocated to someone else in the firm.

However, I am sure that there will be stacks of Solicitors firms local to you who would be willing to run this on a "No win no fee" basis which would not in theory cost you anything.

Sadly, a delay in settling a case where liability is in dispute is not uncommon. My advice would be to instruct your Solicitor to issue proceedings if he remains confident about your prospects of success. It's better for you to issue first than having the Third Party issue against you.

Don't worry too much about the private medical treatment; I would imagine that these are also part of your Insurers "Panel" and if the cost is not picked up by the Third Party, they will be met by your Insurer.

If you need any advice, just give me a shout.

The big problem with using insurance company nominated solicitors is that they are paid by the insurance company . So ask yourself this question - Who does the solicitor represent ?.

I would approach another solicitor for a 2nd opinion.

Ask for a barrister to provide a formal advice on the matter.

You may have to pay for this, but a good barrister, will know what they are talking about and are in court regularly.

Been involved with loads of law firms from a business & professional perspective, and would agree with most comments so far!

I was told (by several firms) that it was easy for these things to go on for a couple of years.

As I understood it the tipping point for insurance appointed solicitors will be the balance of probability of fault v cost to proceed. If they believe you have the balance in your favour, don't suggest knock for knock; just wait it out and consider the other suggestions that have been made.

Many years back when SWMBO was involved in an accident (guy ran a red light & T boned her) she was told by her "firm" that the more contact they had with her the more the costs racked up, and the less money was available to pursue the 3rd party! This was based on the fact that in the legal protection bit of her policy there was fine print that stated an actual maximum cost that could be incurred in the pursuance of a 3rd party where liability was in doubt. There was even a limit on the amount of money they would pay for a courtesy car while hers was fixed. Had the 3rd party accepted liability, cost would have been no big issue, but because they were locked in dispute (& the third party had tried to produce a dodgy witness), they were nervous that it would end up as knock for knock!

We left it alone except that we asked for all document to be sent to us as soon as the solicitor had them. It took nearly 18 months before we had a copy of the "witness" statement. The dodgy witness was a real no brainer as his statement first line was "i didn't see anything, but heard a screech of brakes and a loud bang at exactly 9.05am". So firstly the witness hadn't seen anything, but by stating the time it showed that not only had the 3rd party gone through a red light, but that at that time of day that junction from his direction was a no entry bus gate (in the days before gate cameras!)! We informed the police about this development and passed it all back to the solicitors. Needless to say a couple of weeks later an envelope landed with a cheque & the third party acceptance of liability!!!!

What annoyed me though was that we'd seemingly had to do the work of the solicitor in pointing out the statements flaws and giving them the information about the bus gate. After 18 months & an accident investigator, I'd have thought they'd have got it sussed!!!!

Pain in the bits I know, but once you get entangled with a legal dispute, time seems to stand still!!!

I've yet to meet or deal with a solicitor that knows what they are doing or earns their vastly excessive fee. When I was getting divorced I quickly learned that ringing for updates achieves thing except a bigger bill. The exception to this rule is fixed price work like conveyancing.

Most of the time their work is shoddy and full of mistakes. No better than estate agents imo.

Definitely complain through the solicitors channels (for all the good that will do) and to your insurer.

An accident in my company car took 2 years to resolve. My companies insurers eventually employed a recovery agent and we were booked to go to court on the thursday to deal with my claim and his counterclaim, when they conceded the day before. I reckon this was the first time the other sides barrister had reviewed the claim properly and realised there was no defence. I think it is normal practice when on the likely loosing side to delay as much as possible. This can often result in the climant gives up or settles for knock for knock, both of which save money.

It was an incident at a roundabout, dual c'way in, and single out and he tried to overtake me on the exit into the face of oncoming traffic, realised he couldn't and hit my offside rear wheel area. His defense was a claim that I was undertaking him at the exit and hence it was my fault! After the accident, he was quite belligerant, said he drove this route every day, always entered the roundabout in the outside lane and overtook cars on the exit, this was ok! (Everyone who uses the roundabout regularly only uses the outside lane entry to turn right, and queues in the inside lane to go straight on, so he was clearly one of those drivers who thinks he is entitled to push pass queuing traffic in unsafe places and force back into traffic stream as he wants)

The funniest thing about the whole situation was that when I was sent his initial claim and description of the accident, it was actually another virtually identical accident at another roundabout with another car, and they had mixed the 2 up.

Don't give up and persevere if you are in the right. What about contacting the insurance omnusdman?

There are also recovery agents out there who take on clear cut cases and sort it out quickly. I had a car run into the rear of mine when stationary, was referred to this company specialising in this. They supplied a hire car the same day and dealy with the whole incident recovering all the costs from the other party. They would even have sought compensation for any losses or injury to myself as well, but there were none.

Edited 25 December, 201015 yr by kenfowler3966

My missus was involved in a non fault accident whilst at work. (bus driver). Woman pulled out on her on a roundabout. The case dragged on for nearly 3 years, as the other party lied big style and their insurance co would not release the details of the repairs to their client's car, plus had fake witnesses, who's statements were pure bull. Also my missus' GP was slow at releasing her medical details. Once all this was finally got by my better half's solicitor, it proved that the other party was 100% at fault, and it was 'cough up or else!' time. The offer was surprisingly good, so it was accept time, and less than 2 weeks later, there was a cheque on the doormat, with all legal fees coming from the other party's insurance..Cost to the missus..ZERO....Deep Joy.

Ibbotson Brady Solicitors were the ones she used in Leeds, and John Ibbotson comes highly recommended. Once he gets stuck into a case, he is like a pitbull.

The moral of the tale is, if it isnt your fault, NEVER use insurance company solicitors. Go for the 'no win/no fee' guys.

And as an aside, always take pictures.

Most people have a mobile phone with a camera now, and I often have a small digital work camera with me.

When I was hit at the roundabout, I could take a picture of my cars damage, the other cars damage and where on the vehicles it had happened, a picture of the driver, and pictures of the location. If it was an accident due to positioning on the road take more pictures or a video of how other vehicles pass the spot.

With all these available to me the other party had no case to argue, and these will be what persuaded his barrister to give up before the court hearing. A picture truly speaks a thousand words.

This will also tackle the deliberate accidents where you hit a car that suddenly stops in front. If your picture shows a car with only a driver and little to no damage on the rear, it is clearly a fraud case if the claim comes in for a write off with 4 passengers wanting wiplash compensation. (It is common practice once they have a victim to go somewhere quiet and reverse into a wall hard to back up the wiplash claims)