Mentally ill brother is being sued for a car accident 3 years ago. Can this be right?

[deepakchop]

Hi, I would love some help with this please.

I have a 40 year old brother who is mentally ill - he suffers from depression, anxiety, but he is not diagnosed and refuses any help. He manages to hold down his warehouse job and has a boss who understands him and is something of a father figure.

My brother had a letter today saying he is being taken to court regards a car accident that happened over 3 years ago. The claimant is the other driver, the 1st defendant is my brother, and the 2nd defendant is his insurance company at the time.

When he called the insurance company they say they have no records of his policy but I have asked him to call again because this can't be the case. Perhaps the operator he got didn't look properly?

I'm not sure what to do to help. I don't think he will get legal aid as he works and can't afford a lawyer. I'm worried he could be sued for thousands or more.

Can anyone offer any advice on this?

Can you start a court case relating to a vehicle collision 3 years after the incident?

Thanks

Although... by him being listed as 1st defendant and the insurer as second defendant its a possible indication there could be an issue with the policy

No, this is a red herring. Entirely correct to sue the individual, although the insurance company will take it over. But you do have to name the individual as a defendant.

I haven't read the full thread but I work in claims for a car insurance company so am hoping I can help a bit.

First step is to call your DBs insurance tomorrow and check that he was insured with them when the accident happened. If yes - make sure they have the claim
Reported. If not, ask if they are able to help find out who he was insured with at the time. Check bank statements from the accident date to help with this if needed.

If his insurance has lapsed since then, obviously sort that out but it will have no baring on his claim. For that, you just need to be clear that he was insured at that time.

If he didn't report the accident and is still insured with the same company, they may have procedures to refuse to deal with the claim under an indemnity clause - some companies say in their t&cs that if you do not report an accident and cooperate in a defence, they do not have to indemnify you (cover the claim).

All being well, your brother was covered at the time, in which case, you check that they have all the claim info that they need and let them do the work. In cases like this, they often send the same letter to the driver and insurance company. The insurer will want to defend their own money so will deal with this for him and you won't need to do anything except assist them.
When you speak to them, ask what the claim is for - in my company, we will contact a customer to tell them that we have received an injury claim so that they are prepared and we can work with them to defend it if necessary.
Also ask them for their stance on liability. If that have admitted liability, then they are simply negotiating how much they are going to pay out.
If they say it is in dispute, this means they don't think your DB is 100% responsible so will be arguing what % liable he is before settling the third party costs.

If he was not covered at the time, he will need to get some independent legal advice.
If that is the case, the third party may be trying to claim against him, but no judge is going to try and take what he doesn't have. Things like that are generally settled with a payment agreement that is manageable.

Please rest assured Op, car accidents and claims very rarely end up with anyone actually getting into trouble (as long as there is no drink driving etc) It is more about making sure the right insurance company pays for the right amount of damage / injuries caused.

Thisisafakename i know you have to list the driver as defendant. I work in this area and we only ask for the insurer to be included as second defendant where there is an issue over indemnity.

If it wasn't reported or investigated at the time I imagine it would be difficult to prove the accident happened or who was liable surely? Otherwise anyone could claim an accident happened 3 years ago and blame someone.

What would happen if your brother said he didn't remember the accident? (Not saying he should) If the police weren't involved what proof do they even have that it happened? If your brother recalls it as a minor incident, that neither party reported, that wasn't even his fault he needs to make that very clear.

Thisisafakename i know you have to list the driver as defendant. I work in this area and we only ask for the insurer to be included as second defendant where there is an issue over indemnity

Aha, I misunderstood because some people upthread seemed to think that if he was named as a defendant it meant that he was uninsured as you would otherwise sue the insurance company. Sorry. Yes, I see your point but again, there must be a long back-story to this as the claimant wouldn't know that the insurance company is seeking to avoid liability unless that had been disclosed.

Hi everyone. I have an update ...

My brother spoke to the insurance company on the phone and they have verbally confirmed they have a record of his policy at the time and are aware of this claim. However, they are refusing to give him the policy number or any other details.

My brother and I have followed this phone call up with 2 strongly worded emails requesting this information within 24 hours but no response from the insurance company whatsoever.

I have just told my brother to write another email today explaining that he will contact the Financial Ombudsman should they not reply by Thursday afternoon.

So what seems to be happening here from what I can see, is that the insurance company are not dealing with the matter and don't appear to want to deal with it. What can we do?

This sounds very odd behaviour from the insurance company. I hope you manage to get to the bottom of it.

This does sound strange! Has he managed to answer all the data protection related questions they've asked?
If you don't mind disclosing it...who is his insurer? You can search the MID (motor insurer database) for his policy details, but you'd have to pay a couple of £.

According to this thread you only have MH issues if you are diagnosed.

Thats like telling someone with acute abdominal pain that it isn't appendicitis because no ones diagnosed it yet.

No your baby doesn't have cerebral palsy because you live in a third world country and you can't afford a doctor to diagnose it yet.

For fuck sake

It's a smaller firm, not a big nationwide firm. I shall look into searching the MID - thank you. Would this show for historic policies from 2012?

With the system we use at work we put in the vehicle registration & date of the accident in & it will give you the insurer & policy number. I would assume the public system is similar.
I'm honestly at a loss as to why the insurer won't discuss anything. If legal action was being taken against one of our customers we'd be desperately trying to contact them to discuss it & settle the claim before it actually proceeds to court. That only increases costs for the insurer. The only reason I can think is that he can't confirm information to pass data protection checks.

If the policy was voided (due to non payment, non disclosure or some other reason) this would explain their unwillingness to discuss it.

I'm assuming if you/ your brother don't know the policy no. you will not have passed their DPA checks, this could also explain why they can't speak to you or give you any information, however they should have,said they cant discuss it as you've failed DPA, or similar.

The fact proceedings have been issued against your brother and his insurers suggests to me that they are dealing as RTA insurer, because he didn't report the accident and they've been unable to contact him since.