To think this claim is ridiculous!

[CatchingBabies]

Last year I was involved in a minor car accident. Misjudged my braking distance and bumped into the car in front of me as they rolled back at the same time. They were exiting a roundabout on a hill. Tiny tiny bump at less than 5mph and no damage to either car. We stopped, exchanged apologies and went on our way.

Now 10 months later I'm told the other driver has submitted a claim against me. They claim that because of the accident they are suffering anxiety, depression, intrusive thoughts and flashbacks. I have been asked to submit a defence.

It's a bloody joke! A tiny tiny bump that caused NO damage to either car, NO injuries to either driver and I'm supposed to believe that 10 months later it's having such a major effect on her mental health, really?

It seems more likely that she's seen one of these no win no fee lawyers and thought she may as well chance it. How do I possibly defend this? Does she have a claim?

Did you exchange details and make insurance claims or make insurance companies aware? Honestly I'd just say I have no idea what they're on about I've never been in any accident it's an all out lie. Unless you did contact insurers at the time. I know that then you'd be lying but it would be worth it to not let them have their false claim!

Even if OP hadn't already informed her insurer, this would be incredibly bad advice. How would she explain the fact that the other driver had all her details? Lying about it would inevitably lead to the inference that she was lying about everything else.

Massdebate
"The claim probably won't make a difference to your future premiums because your previous insurer will be picking up the cost rather than your current one."

That's not correct. You have to declare any claims up to 3 years old to any future insurer. Fault accidents will always increase premiums because you are a higher risk driver no matter which insurer paid out.

Risk is how premiums are quoted, your postcode (high crime rate area), previous accidents, age/driving experience and type of job are all examples of risks that are taken into account when a policy is quoted.

She sounds like a chancer. Now I'm not denying that yes, some people can be THAT affected by something that minor, but it's usually as a result of some injury (whiplash) or because it has triggered previous bad experiences to be remembered. If she had claimed for injury at the time hen perhaps she might have a case, but since she didnt and you can see bits of stuff she has been up to since on Facebook, I think there's a good chance she's an outright chancer.

Sounds a lot like the fucking chancer currently pursuing a "driving without due care and attention" case against me. Now all he is saying is very reasonable, quote aside from the fact that I wasn't coming from the direction he has said I was- I was next to him on the roundabout going straight over and he failed to see me, went straight on the roundabout instead of you know- round it, and therefore scraped the side of his car down the front of mine. But somehow it is me who is supposedly been driving without paying proper attention, despite the fact that his story is either a) a lie or b) proves my case that he didn't see me and therefore failed to navigate his car in such a way as to allow us both the space required on a two lane roundabout. This has been going on for the best part of 18 months now (they are wasting time not meeting court deadlines) and the first I heard was court papers served to me 6 months after the incident having told my insurers what happened and left it to them! To add insult to the whole thing, he is somehow managing to claim that a respray for one panel (possibly two if he managed to convince his repair man it needed doing) costs the princely sum of £2000. It literally beggars belief.

Chancers. They really wind me up. Hope you get sorted. I would definitely contact both your previous insurer (I'm sure you have your old policy number somewhere), your new one and take screenshots of the Facebook. Also worth speaking to the people you sold the car to- more the better if it was a dealership as they will have produced a report on any damage the car had that needed addressing prior to sale. Even better if you have receipts from anywhere you had any work done to it (although you did say it didn't need it).

The claim will fail. You can't claim for a psychological injury for this kind of incident unless there is also a physical injury.

I think you mean you stopped just behind them and they were incapable of a hill start and rolled backwards into you and are now lying and saying you hit them

You could counterclaim and say you are also suffering flashbacks etc and that the accident was in fact her fault (seeing as she won't have any photos of damage etc). Maybe then she will back off.

What an utter bitch though. Someone hit my car from behind last year. I took her details but because there was no damage beyond a very small dent on my already dented bumper, I would not have dreamed of making a claim against her, let alone claim anything stupid like whiplash or flashbacks.

To clarify.

I told my previous insurer the day the accident happened and explained there was no damage and no injuries.

I switched insurer 7 months later and I also told them about the accident again stating no claim made.

Both insurers are aware.

The car was a 4x4, I was driving a 2 door 1.2 corsa. Not a single scratch was on my car. It was a tiny bump. The car was traded in when I got my new car and has since been sold.

This happened 10 months ago!

The premium can go up - as you would lose your NCB and they can reflect on your premium

Definitely take the FB screen shots!!

Saves the insurance company doing so and she may take them down

A couple of years ago my car was badly damaged when an idiot drove into the side of it while it was in a car park. No one was in my car.....we were doing our shopping when we heard our reg number over the tannoy. We still regularly get calls from "ambulance chasers" trying to convince us to make a complain for "any injury be that physical or psychological". Even when I said that the car was parked with no one in it at the time I got "you can still claim for mental trauma". Absolutely disgusting!

I had a similar crash several years ago; no obvious damage;other party didn't really want to exchange details but I made her! I get a letter from her insurers saying 'there was extensive damage to her car'. Asked to phone insuers, 'And who are your insurers?' I'm asked. 'You are ' I said , suddenly the damage was minimal. ( The crash was very minor , I tapped the rear end at a roundabout when she hesitated to pull out, minimal speed, nothing coming, vey hesitant driver. I accept it was my fault. Obviously just trying it on just like these people are.

It is chancers like this who push all our premiums up

Happened to me a few years ago- bus parked on double yellow lines outside a venue, causing total gridlock. Drivers standing smoking outside the bus watching the mayhem. I thought I could squeeze past in my Nissan micra, crept forward at 2 miles an hour but forgot about my wheel arch, which scraped along the bus, stopped immediately, cursing myself. Got out, spoke to smoking drivers, no damage to bashed up old bus, big scrape on my 6 mth old car

Few months letter for a letter from a lawyer that female driver had suffered whiplash!!!! She wasn't even on the bus!!! I phoned my insurance company and told them about it ( had already claimed the damage to my car at the time), they said they would look into it but agreed she was probably a chancer. Never heard any more about it, premiums never went up, so I'm assuming she was told to do one. Made me proper annoyed though!!

Dad recently got a letter saying he had been involved in an accident from his insurance company- he hadnt! Turned out they were claiming it happened in a town he had never been to! He had to fight to get it removed from his record, as it was going to put his premium up quite a bit! There are so many scammers out there!

Bloody chancers.

No advice OP, I hope the claim fails.

I had a low speed collision a few years ago, which was admittedly totally my fault, smashed headlight on my end and scratched bumper in theirs.

I was shocked when 3 people claimed for whiplash, since the 3rd must have been invisible! They got their money though, the cheeky fuckers, since I didn't take photos of the empty backseat!

Facebook is a wonderful thing!
I was sued for £15k a few years back. The man produced sworn statements from his ex wife, claiming all sorts. I looked her up on FB and found out she'd moved to the US. I asked him in court where she resided and he told me it was in the UK. He was caught falsifying a witness statement and lying under oath. Unsurprisingly the whole thing was thrown out shortly after.

The car was a 4x4, I was driving a 2 door 1.2 corsa.

No damage to either car and yet it was so traumatising that she suffers flash backs? In a 4x4? She doesnt stand a chance!

I have a 4x4 and was sitting in it when my neighbour bumped me as he was parking. I didnt even notice and he cracked his reg plate on my towbar!

Sleepvampirevictim if you read my post, you'll see I said it probably won't affect her premium further because it will (or should) have already taken into account when she changed insurer (assuming the accident was declared to the new insurer). They will have assessed the risk in knowledge of a potential claim relating to that incident.
I work in insurance so do know what I'm talking about

People try it on all the time.

We get people coming through A&E after these incidents, because they want a medical record for insurance purposes.

You'd be surprised at the people who have multiple RTCs on their record.

not breaking confidentiality here btw before anyone says

Annoying. We live in a world full of chancers. Try not to get too bitter

Do let us know when the claim fails. These chancers put all our insurance premiums up!

We had a taxi driver, drive into the back of us at a set of traffic lights, we hardly felt it at all. In fact I had to ask dh if we'd been hit. In the days before everyone had cameras on their phones, we exchanged details and several months later got a call saying he was claiming we had rolled down the hill and staved all the front of his car in. Our car didn't even have a scratch, it was thoroughly inspected and found to have no damage at all. I was asked to give a statement about what happened and during the course of that remembered that he had a massive v shaped dent in the front of his can, with a brand new number plate in front of it. He got done for fraud! It was part of the big scam going on at that time.

I fucking hate this.

A few years ago my husband was sitting stationery in traffic in his van. A woman stepped out in front of him to cross the road. He looked in his wing mirror and saw a motorbike coming up fast beside him. He hit the horn so hard to try and warn the woman before she stepped out that he actually broke his steering wheel centre.

She stepped out without looking, the bike was going too fast. Both very badly injured in ensuing collision. My DH gave first aid to both of them before the ambulance / police arrived and then carried on to work. He broke down a few hours later and shook for hours.

Three months later he had letters from two solicitors wanting statement - they were suing each other. It was a totally 50/50 accident. DH told both solicitors to piss off.

For a start she will need to get a psychiatric expert to say she has a medically recognised psychiatric condition as a result of the accident. The evidence you found on fb is very good; forward to your insurers, they love stuff like that. If they think it's a fraudulent claim they can arrange surveillance to catch her out.

Please please screenshot facebook and send to the insurance company OP.

Three months later he had letters from two solicitors wanting statement - they were suing each other. It was a totally 50/50 accident. DH told both solicitors to piss off

Paulapansdown that is not an example of a ridiculous claim at all. You said they were both badly injured and chances are that would have left them with injuries affecting them for the rest of their lives. It's not for your DH to say 'it was totally 50/50. I hope he gave his witness statement and that you were exaggerating when you say he told them to piss off.

When i was a trainee, I dealt with a client who had got into a car with a young and inexperienced driver who was messing about behind the wheel. The care flipped and the passenger suffered catastrophic injuries, needing 24 hour care for the rest of his life. He ended up with a multi-million pound settlement, but let me tell you that every penny of that was accounted for in the cost of carers and nurses for the rest of his life. Had that not been paid for by the insurance, he would not have recieved the equivalent from the state and would have been forced to make do with a much lower standard of care.
Your DH has no idea of the injuries suffered by the pedestrian or the motor-cyclist. By saying 'piss off' to the request to give witness evidence, he could potentially have helped deprive someone with long term brain injury of vital treatment.

The OP's example is a ridiculous claim, the one you describe most certainly isn't.

I feel for you this shit is so unnecessary and stressful. I had an accident once, v minor and 4.5 years later the mare tried to hit me with a ccj. We were in the middle of applying for mortgages at the time and a ccj would've affected my credit history.

I managed to get it thrown out as I refuted her claims of whiplash which were 'diagnosed' by a specialist claim doctor working out of the holiday Inn 😕

Also found info that she was a registered bouncer so doubted she could do such a physical job with the 'crippling pain' she apparently experienced!

Good luck and gather as much evidence as you can!

Please listen to oysterbabe. This claim cannot get off the ground without a physical injury (soft tissue, fracture etc) being present also.