I was rear ended yesterday, should I go through lawyer?

[Waytooearly]

Hi all, just wondering if someone has been through similar and has wisdom to share.

I was rear ended yesterday on way home from work. About 30mph. I was about to overtake a bus but when bus went to pull out I stopped to let him. Half second later van crashed into back of me.

We both pulled into car park and made sure no one hurt. I confess I was a little shakey and teary from shock of it. Young guy was driving boss's van, he had no phone so I lent him my phone to ring his boss. Bless him, he was really apologetic and saying it was the worst day of his life. I told him that's what insurance was for, that we'd go through insurance and at the end of the day we were both able to walk away and drive away so not to worry.

My car dented in back, I had my friend make sure all my brake lights and hazards working before I went home. Other van dented in front.

I felt disoriented last night and my friend insisted on taking me to A and E but after two hours I said I just wanted to get home and rest.

Woke up with tight sore neck, still dizzy so came to GP, they gave me sick note for a week and diagnosed whiplash.

Anyway, my question is: should I instruct a lawyer? I wasn't thinking to, to begin with--I'm insured and after checking online I see other driver's insured too. Insurance should sort it all, right?

However after dealing with my insurance I don't feel so confident in them. I think I need someone on my side.

I phoned insurance right after accident (whilst sitting in car, after van left) and made a claim. I was still kind of teary but wanted to get everything lodged right away. However they were less than helpful.

1.Right away they said I had to pay an 'admin charge' of £36. I said I would dispute it as I didn't understand what it was for.

1. They said I'd have to pay excess of £500 in order to get car fixed. I pointed out that I'd been rear-ended and so maybe other insurance could pay, just got answer that it was a long process to determine liability.
2. There was something else about my replacement car--my policy says I'm entitled to one whilst my car is being fixed but there was some other company I had to talk to and claim with to sort? And so I waited whilst they put me through and this additional company said they needed evidence that the accident wasn't my fault? I finally just said, 'I can't deal with this right now.'
3. And now the Auto Repair place is calling to ask when I'll be bringing my car in. I'm like, I need to sort out the replacement car first...

For the amount of money I pay for insurance insurance I was rather expecting something more along the lines of,' Sorry to hear that ma' am, what can we do to fix this for you and make your life easier? '

Through work I know a very good PI lawyer and she's agreed to take on case. It just ses like overkill to instruct lawyers for something so minor.

What do you think?

Hope you are feeling ok today OP
What do you want a lawyer for? Your insurance company should be handling this, no need for a lawyer st this stage
One thing to be careful of is that often the “courtesy “ car is a hire car you will have to pay for and try and claim back from the other party. A lot of people don’t realise this until they get a bill.

I'm not sure how a lawyer will help you, it will just be more expense won't it?

Did you buy legal protection as an add-on to your insurance policy?

The insurers will only deal with the repair of the vehicle. A solicitor will represent you for your losses (wages etc) and your injuries. They would also get back your excess.

Please ignore the posters who say it will be expensive. Your solicitor makes money through recouping their costs from the negligent party.

No need for a lawyer.
Most of that sounds normal you just need to sort courtesy car, I would get onto that today and sort ASAP so you can get your car into the garage.
The excess is something that you should have set yourself when you took out the policy? So you will need to pay that to make a claim but check your renewal documents if you're not sure that's the amount you stipulated.
Don't expect a large payout for minor whiplash. There have been crackdowns on that with crash for cash scams.

If it were me I would focus on spending your week off getting things sorted on the phone and getting your car in for repair which the insurers will be able to sort.

If your car is going to only cost £250 to repair and your excess is £500, I would just pay to have my car repaired and save myself the money. It's going to cost you double that to claim, and if your no claims bonus isn't protected you will lose that too.

Thanks Hoppingreen. I guess I want the peace of mind that my expenses in term of the excess and courtesy car will actually be reimbursed. I don't mind paying up front just to get things sorted but I don't want to end up out of pocket for being rear ended.

My insurance company yesterday was so fantastically unhelpful and could only talk about the money I needed to pay them.

Also if they have said it might be tricky re liability, if you instruct a solicitor for personal injury and they determine the accident was your fault then there might be costs there.

Your insurance should put you in contact with your legal representative, provided you pay for this in your policy.

Please also ignore "nightmareoncstreet*'s comments about 'crackdowns' on 'cash for crash scams'. The new legislation has been delayed and won't be introduced until April 2020.

Can you just clarify, how many lanes were in the road and was the van behind you or was he in the lane you were moving into? That is important in terms of who is liable.

Your insurance should take care of all this. I'm surprised they haven't already given your details to a personal injury firm - my insurers did this even after I had told them I wasn't injured in any way.

It was just one lane each way, bus was at bus stop in front of me and I indicated, thinking to overtake, but when bus started to pull out I stopped to let him go. Cars were coming the other way. I stopped, all good, then a half sec later wham.

Yeah not looking to scam anyone, just a bit baffled at why I am paying everyone after being rear ended. And why insurance not being more helpful.

I agree with bowchicawowow - you have legitimate financial and PI claims and are entitled to the cost of legal assistance in reclaiming them from the guilty party if your insurance company aren’t being supportive. Do check whether you’ve got the legal protection add-on though.

No! You don’t need to do anything OP and you certainly don’t need a lawyer!

Ok, this happened to me last year and I’ll talk you through what happened...

A young driver drove into the side of my car - completely her fault and she admitted liability (jut like in your accident).
At the time of the accident I took the drivers name, phone number, address and insurers name.
The driver immediately phoned her insurance company and logged a claim.
Her insurance company then contacted me a few days later and arranged for my car to be taken away to be repaired. They also gave me a courtesy car for 2 weeks whilst the repair was being done.

I only contacted my insurance company to inform them of the accident. I didn’t need to ‘log a claim’. Other than letting your insurance company know, you shouldn’t need to do anything. You won’t need to pay an excess and it won’t affect your insurance premium going forward.

A couple of months ago, I damaged someone’s car in a car park. This time it was my fault, so I had to contact my insurers and sort it all out. The other driver did nothing apart from inform her insurance company.

So I’ve been on both sides of an accident recently. This accident you not cost you a penny! (the only time it would be tricky is if the other driver didn’t have insurance or if they didn’t admit liability).

Thanks Enid.

I only found out about other party's insurance after looking up online. Guy driving van didn't have any insurance details with him. When he phoned his boss, his boss wanted me to write out statement saying that it was all the bus driver's fault, I declined.

I wasn't too worried about it at the time, I thought okay, my insurance will contact their insurance and sort it out, but now I am not so sure.

Id ask to move this to legal OP

You poor thing, an accident like this can really shake you up.

Your insurance company ought to handle everything, including your whiplash claim. This is a really normal, run-of-the-mill accident and they deal with hundreds of them every week. It should not be a complex process of determining liability- my understanding is that there is pretty much an automatic assumption that a driver who runs into the back of someone else is at fault? I've had it happen to me and never had someone question this so I am surprised to hear your company doing so. I would ring them back when you feel a bit calmer and ask them to look into this.

It is normal for different elements of the process to involve different companies - your insurer will have a contract with a car hire firm and with a body shop etc.

Your insurance company sound hopeless. I was with Halifax when rear ended a few years back. They were extremely helpful. I had a courtesy car within 4 hours and a medical person called to check my symptoms to see if I needed physio to help with recovery. Car was written off sadly bur we had white car for 5 weeks while we looked for another. All costs were charged to other party insurers so I didn't need to pay anything but my insurers were so good at keeping me in the loop.

Do rest today. Whiplash is horrible but try to keep your hurty areas moving a bit. My doctors offer in house physio so perhaps a call to the doctors will get you some help.

Your insurance should handle everything. We're there any witnesses? It should be easy case as the other driver admitted fault. There are no win no fee claim management companies who deal with this. Tell insurance you will go to them if they don't buck up. They should get all your expenes back, or supply courtesy car and pay repairs if that's in you policy. No caims bonus and excess will be reimbursed from the other drivers insurance.

It's not true to say it won't affect your premium going forward I'm afraid. If you are in an accident, regardless of fault then you are considered by insurance companies to be more likely to have another accident. So it can and may affect your premium even in the event of it being a "no fault" on your part. I logged an accident for which I did not claim and which was not my fault and my premium did go up as a result. This many not happen to everyone but to say it cannot is not accurate.

The driver that hit you is at fault. You should not have to pay any excess, or admin fee! You need to tell your insurance company that you are claiming against the other drivers insurance and will NOT accept a knock for knock agreement between companies. Some insurance companies do this to save work for themselves, it is a very dodgy little system between bad companies. Oh, and when it's all sorted change your insurance to a decent company.

Thanks redredrobins, I know that but just knowing it doesn't seem to be enough. I can't force the other party's insurance get back to me.

I used to do motor claims.

It is standard to get your car repaired by your company and pay the excess yourself while the insurance companies sort out whose fault it is. If the other party has admitted liability from the outset, sometimes their company will sort your car out, but not always. If you’ve got whiplash as far as I remember your insurance’s personal injury section section should deal with that, possibly legal expenses if you have that.

Do you pay for legal expenses with your insurance (or any sort of insurance?) legal expenses often sort out getting the excess back from the other persons company. If you don’t have this, sometimes you can just contact their insurance company yourself and ask.

Usually if someone goes into the back of you it is the other party’s fault.

Your insurance premium may be higher if you have a renewal before the claim is finalised as being the other persons fault. When they have recouped their expenses from them it shouldn’t affect your no claims bonus. If they can’t recoup their costs (if it is your fault/partly your fault) it will increase.

Ah, I see from your update that the boss of the van driver is being tricky. Definitely do NOT sign anything saying it was the bus drivers fault. It wasn’t. Neither was it your fault.

Stand your ground. Pester the van driver to chase up his insurance company to sort this out. Do not pay a penny of your own money up front on this. Call your insurance company again if you feel they fobbed you off the first time. I agree with previous poster that your insurance company sound dodgy. Tell them what you’ve learnt on here from posters like dangermouse who have worked in the insurance industry.

Good luck OP. Hopefully once the shock has worn off, you’ll feel better placed to deal with this. I was clueless when it first happened to me (Polish lorry driver on the M25 went into the back of me!!), but if it happens again, make sure you ask for as many personal/insurance details as you can get at the time, and an admission of liability.