Personal injury claim against me will I have to go to court?

[TillyFloss10]

Today I was contacted by my old car insurance company to say a personal injury claim had been made against me for an incident that happened 18 months ago. It was a minor incident and no damage occured to my car but of course we exchaged details and I reported to the insurance company.
It may not be relevant but as it occurred so long ago I have since moved house and changed insurers.
They gave said they are going to dispute the claim as they do not belive the injuries were caused by the accident.
But now I'm worried because surely it must be a major injury to claim so long after the accident and I really don't want to go to court but I'm sure if I'd be expected to?
Any advice would be great!

[prh47bridge]

It may not go to court. However, if it does you may have to give evidence. It may be a condition of your insurance that you co-operate in defending any legal action.

[daisychain01]

If this is your old insurance provider, and you reported the facts to them at that time (which you state did not cause personal injury), then it remains to be seen how the other side will describe the details of the injury sustained by the 3rd party.

Your insurers loss adjusters will be all over it like a rash, they will be adept at comparing the circumstances of the accident, what (if any) damage was sustained to the vehicle and the actual injury they claim was sustained by them.

I bet it is one of those unscrupulous ambulance chasing scammers trying to pull a fast one, and your insurers will head it off very quickly. Try not to worry in the meantime, let your insurers handle it.

[PerryMasonsFriend]

Most personal injury cases settle so the law of averages says its unlikely you'd have to go to court.

Way before that happens you'd have to give a written witness statement and they would contact you to do this.

You'd also only have to give evidence if your evidence was relevant to the dispute so for example if it is accepted there was an accident but the issue is whether he has made up his whiplash that will turn on medical evidence and not your evidence.

But now I'm worried because surely it must be a major injury to claim so long after the accident and I really don't want to go to court but I'm sure if I'd be expected to?

It doesn't follow it is a major injury to claim after 18 months at all. you have 3 years to bring a personal injury claim. It regularly happens cases are issued very close to the 3 year dead line.

Think about it - if it was a minor incident, how major can the injury be? Usually these claims involve whiplash and issues of people lying or exaggerating about how much they are suffering.

I really wouldn't worry about it at this stage.

[Enko]

OP we had a similar situation happen only it had happened 4 years prior and our old insurance company dealt with it without much fuss from our side. I agree try not to worry too much.