If you instruct us to act for you in a claim for personal injury arising out of a road traffic accident after the 29th April 2010, please be prepared for a long conversation with us because we are obliged to submit your claim to the insurers of the driver who caused the accident on-line to a secured website operated by the Ministry of Justice.The amount of detail which needs to be provided is extensive.
This only applies to claims where the value of the injury or injury related claims such as earnings loss or private medical treatment is likely to be less than £10,000.00.
On the same day as we submit the form to the insurers, we must send a hard copy to the other driver and in printed form, the claim will generally be about eight pages long.
The form has several sections and it will be helpful if you can have the following information available when we speak.
Your Personal Details
Your full name Address and postcode
Telephone numbers & e-mail address (for our records only)
Your date of birth
Your National Insurance number
Your occupation
Whether you wre wearing a seat belt
Details about your injury
Full details about your symptoms
The name (and address) of any hospital visited following the accident (and reference number if available)
Whether you have received any treatment such as physiotherapy or if this has been recommended
Whether you have been unable to work and the dates of your absence
Whether you have been involved in any other accident in the last three years (for our records only)
Details about the vehicles involved and of the driver responsible
The make, model (where known) and registration numbers of all vehicles involved
The name and address of the other driver or the owner of the vehicle
The number of people in the vehicle in which you were travelling
If you are the vehicle owner
Whether you are comprehensively insured or Third Party Fire & Theft
Who is repairing the vehicle (if not written off)
The name, address and reference number of any company that has provided a hire/replacement vehicle
The dates of hire
If you were a passenger
The name and address of the driver
Accident Details
Description of the accident circumstances
The date, time and weather conditions
The names of any witnesses
The details of any other driver/vehicles involved
Why you think the other driver is at fault
Other Information
Whether you have any legal expenses insurance (legal protection) sold with your motor policy or house contents policy or even travel insurance
If you were injured on public transport, the name of the bus or coach company, the Route number if any and whether you have proof of ticket purchase for the journey, along with the approximate number of other people on the bus or coach.
If it appears that the other vehicle was uninsured, a description of the driver .
If you don’t have all the information to hand, we may not be in a position to submit your claim and advance your case until you do! However the person taking the information on our behalf will be able to advise you further about this.
A quick and easy process if there is no dispute
The good news, however, is that once the claim has been submitted to the other driver’s insurers they have only 15 Business Days (three weeks) to concede liability and save themselves considerable legal cost if they accept that their insured was to blame. If they miss this deadline, the claim will leave this streamlined process and be dealt with under the much slower and more costly system which has applied up till now.
On the other hand, undisputed claims will progress very quickly from the early provision of physiotherapy or similar treatment to a brief medico-legal examination by a local GP at an appropriate time. The GP then prepares a report in a standard format and if you agree the contents, we will discuss the likely value of your claim and propose on-line a settlement figure (discussed with you in advance) to the other driver’s insurers and upload the medical report along with any documentation confirming your out-of-pocket expenses.
The insurers then have a further 15 Business Days to accept or reject the offer and enter into negotiations over further 20 Business Days to avoid the matter proceeding to a court hearing.
In less serious cases, claims will be capable of being finalised within three to six months and we will be paid a fixed fee by the insurers of the other driver which will cover your legal costs
[...] The form cannot be submitted and your claim cannot be progressed unless all the relevant formation is available. For details of the information required, please click here. [...]