Please help, sporting injury

[Helpplease2024]

NC regular poster. DH going to call for legal advice on Tuesday but I have barely slept, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

DH received a letter from a no win no fee lawyer advising of a damages claim due to DH being negligent and their client suffering an injury and loss of earnings for 3 months as a result.

The letter refers to 'your insured' and asks DH to pass the letter on to his insurance company and reply by x.

The incident refers to a sporting accident. My dh was playing sport with a friend/acquaintance and an accident occured. Dh's opinion is that he wasnt negligent but ultimately an accident occured and the friend did suffer an injury. At the time my dh was upset, seeing his friend injured was unpleasant and the friend saught to reasure dh at the time telling him that he didnt consider him responsible. We have no idea what insurer we are meant to be passing the claim onto. There is no requirement to have insurance to play this sport and unless the owner of the sports facility has some kind of insurance that covers individuals who have a booking then will my dh be personally liable for the damages?

Both dh and i work and own our own home jointly with mortgage. We dont have any savings, could we be forced to sell the house? We have a car thats in my name. Dh earns a decent enough salary but we use his salary in full every month for mortgage, bills, childcare, etc.

Dh and friend dont see each other often but are still in contact and we have received the letter out of the blue. Should dh try to speak to the friend? As i say, dh feels terrible about the accident but it was an accident and surely if you play sports then it is rare but sometimes things will happen that no one wants.

My first thought is whether this is a scam letter? It's very similar in vein to the cold calls you get asking about "your recent car accident"

So I would have suggested he calls his friend and asks - if it's real, then politely end call and get legal advice

@Chocolateteabag it isnt a scam.

Im just really wondering, if the facility doesnt have insurance, will dh be personally liable and might we lose the house if we lost because iv no idea how else we would be able to pay any money?

More information needed. Are either of them members of the governing body of the sport? For instance my son is a swimmer and is therefore insured by Swim England. Were they training, competing in an event or was it just social? Was friends wearing all the necessary protective equipment? Was the incident recorded in the sport centres accident book at the time?

you wont lose your house.

Most likely friend is trying to see if they can get an insurance payment, and the insurance company has contacted you to try and get your insurance company to pay.

Maybe house insurance or similar?

I doubt friend is thinking of taking it from you personally, but they may actually be entitled to an insurance payout,

I have known a similar situation between husband and wife, the wife got a payout from husbands insurance.

The important thing is while insurance companies were slogging it out, the husband and wife were fine, no issues between them at all, and they are still happily married even now. The insurance payout was warrented and helpful, they both hoped it would be awarded, and it was, but it was an argument between insurance companies, not between them

You might want to check whether you have legal cover with your home insurance or personal liability insurance with it.

Was it something like a football tackle? If so the sports field owner may have insurance.

Doesn't seem like a friend to me. I'd definitely call him.

If it’s any kind of organised sport and they compete, they probably pay a yearly membership fee to the sporting body which usually covers insurance for injuries. Both the sports I’ve played have had this. I suppose if it’s something informal like cycling or running and they don’t compete then this wouldn’t apply.

Why not? If he is injured and entitled to insurance, of course he should go for it. Nothing to do with the friendship.

Think of a situation in which two friends are both leaving a car park and back into each other and both cars are badly damaged. Each would make an insurance claim - nothing to do with the friendship.

@leftkneeonbackwards because a friend would have been upfront. Not just sent a letter randomly.

Thanks for all your replies. The governing body doesn't provide insurance and it was a social game. We have legal cover with house insurance but not liability. Will call HI on Tuesday since tomorrow is a bank hol.

@Axx yes, it wasn't a football tackle but it was similar to this.

@leftkneeonbackwards i totally understand your friends dh and dw situation and if we had insurance fair enough, its just insurance company v insurance company but to drive a car you need insurance, to play this sport, you don't need any insurance.

I would think it would have been recorded in the accident book, an ambulance was called. It was a broken bone.

It could well be that he didn't know the insurance company was going to send the letter

maybe just his insurance company trying to find someone else liable - I assure you you are not going to lose your house over this. Even in the worst case scenario, your husband gets personally taken to court ( highly unlikely) and found liable ( highly unlikely) there will be reasonable payment options, and nothing that would jeopardise your actual home. I think the friends insurance will pay though,

@leftkneeonbackwards i doubt the friend will have insurance. You dont need insurance to play.

He is using a no win no fee lawyer which suggests he doesnt have insurance otherwise the insurance would sort the legal side too.

Every case is different. However, if this goes to court the basic question to be decided is whether your husband's conduct was reasonable in relation to the circumstances that led to the injury. Whether he broke the rules of the game is one consideration, but it is only one and may carry a lot of weight or very little weight. A finding that he broke the rules (if he did) does not automatically mean that your husband was negligent. If he did not break the rules, it is unlikely (but not impossible) that he was negligent.

o that sounds different.

Sport carries a risk. Most players accept the risk and know that accidents are common in team games. They are not intentional. I would be cross this is happening. I’m assuming the injury isn’t life threatening and if the friend is self employed and now cannot work for a bit, but he should have insured against this possibility. What if he’s ill? He’s not a friend and he should have taken out insurance. If you play sport, you accept the risk and do not blame others. If everyone did this, where would amateur sport be? Or indeed any sport?

To add to my earlier post, OP's husband's friend can only succeed if OP's husband was negligent. If he did not break the rules, it is unlikely he was negligent. Even if he was breaking the rules, that does not necessarily mean he was negligent. The courts also recognise that things can happen in the heat of the moment.

The threshold for negligence is high. In the vast majority of cases where a player is injured whilst taking part in a team sport, legal action against the player who caused the injury will fail. However, occasionally it will succeed - see, for example, this case from last year: Rugby player paralysed after ‘reckless’ tackle wins case against opposing player | England | The Guardian

Reading that news report, sounds like the player was found liable as they completely lost their rag and pretty much attacked the other player in an outrageously aggressive move. Unless DH did something like that he should have nothing to worry about.

Incidentally, I seem to remember my household insurance including personal liability insurance. Though it is possibly just for claims relating to the property. Worth a check though.