Insurance companies = Bag o shite. Knows it.

[TheTwelveQuidKid]

Insurance companies = Bag o shite.

Knows it.

May as well start a thread about this. Seeing as it's settled now there's no harm in mentioning the details.

Had a minor bump just over a year ago. Bloke pulled out of a parking space on the opposite side of the road, drove straight across in front of me. Collision occurred. Twunt stayed in his car and drove off. I chased him, flashed the lights, sounded the horn, he carried on. Tried again, same result. He turned off down another road, I followed, flashing the lights, sounding the horn. Muppet still didn't stop so I waited until the road in the opposite direction was clear, overtook him and stopped, so he had to as well.
Politely asked him if he realized he had just been involved in an accident. He denied it, saying he thought he had bumped his front wheels into a kerb. I eventually persuaded him to have a look at the rather large dent on the front wing of his own can, at which point he exchanged details.

I sent him the usual letter, stating that I was holdling him entirely responsible for the damage. He phoned me and said he was gettting his insurers to deal with it as he didn't think he was to blame.

I got an estimate and sent it to him. Heard nothing from him, or his insurers.

Got the damage fixed, cost about £175. Sent muppet the invoice as I'd still not heard from his insurer.

He again rang me and said they were dealing with it.

Waited patiently for about 3 months, still hadn't heard anything so sent him a letter saying I would issue county court proceedings against him if he didn't pay within 14 days.

He rang me again and said his insurers were dealing with it.

Then got a letter from his insurers, who turned out to be Saga Insurance. They referred to "previous correspondence" relating to the matter, so I wrote back and asked them to send me copies of this alleged correspondence. Heard nothing back, so I issued proceedings. Used the Money Claim Online facility, thought I'd give it a try as it's slightly cheaper than posting bits of paper to the county court.

Muppet's insurance company used some firm of solicitors who I think they own. They filed an acknowledgement of service, and sent me a copy (weird, seeing as the court also sent me one as is normal for things like this). The solicitors also asked me if I would consent to them having an extra 14 days to prepare a written defence and file it with the court. Right, now the thing is this. I'm not even a solicitor. I did the first couple of years of the Institute of Legal Executives course many years ago. And even I know (because it says it on the bloody summons they got sent) that once an acknowledgement of service is filed, the defendant automatically gets the extra 14 days to file their defence. So I sent them a reply, saying that I thought the insurance company had let their client down very badly, and had had several months to sort this situation out without the necessity of court proceedings. I added that as far as I was aware, they didn't need my permission for extra time to put in the defence.

Anyway, their defence turned up, along with a counterclaim for about £700 for the cost of repairs to the muppet car. I did a defence to the counterclaim, and it got set down for a hearing. Also, the District Judge ordered both parties to supply written statements and copies of all documents they wanted to produce at the hearing. the deadline for this was about 2 months away. I did mine, and sent copies of all the letters, plus photos of the road where it happened, and an aerial shot (flash earth is great innit !)

The defendant's solicitors didn't send anything. The order from the DJ said if the defendant failed to comply with the order, their defence and any counterclaim could be struck out.

4 weeks before the date of the actual hearing, I got a letter from the muppet's solicitors, saying they had been instructed to settle the matter on a without prejudice basis, and they would be sending me a cheque in the next few days. The letter also asked me to send a Notice of Discontinuance to the court. Note for anyone who doesn't know this:- Without Prejudice means Off the Record, and as such a letter with this written at the top cannot normally be produced in court. Maybe they were hoping I was born yesterday or something. If I had discontinued my claim, it would not made any difference to the defendant's claim, unless he also filed a notice of discontinuance. If they hadn't filed one, they could have turned up on the court date and got a judgment against me for the £700.

I wrote back and said I did not agree to settlement on a without prejudice basis, however I was prepared to accept the amount I was claiming in full and final settlement of all claims arising out the the accident, as long as their client withdrew his counterclaim.

Their cheque arrived the next day. I knew the county court was running on a two week backlog of post, so I thought I'd better ring the solicitors and see what their response was. The first person I spoke to didn't have a clue, so she put me through to someone else, who at least had two braincells to rub together. I asked her if she would write to me to confirm that their payment represented full and final settlement etc, and also file a notice of discontinuance. She said yes she was happy to do that, adding that I would be able to get a refund of the £25 hearing fee that I'd paid. She said without actually saying so in so many words that they had loads of cases like that. So I deduce from all this that their policy is to counterclaim, in an attempt to scare off any potential claimants, as they hope this puts people off the idea of suing their policy holders.

Over the years I've had dealings with insurance companies and their solicitors on motor claim cases, I've come to the conclusion that they are institutionally inept. So let this be a warning, if you don't know this already, never take an insurance company's word for anything, without double or even triple checking that they are being straight with you.

Reckon I could sell this post as an eBook on ebay, 99p buy it now ?