The new process for Low Value Road Traffic Accident claims

30 04 2010

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


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Categories : Claim Notification Form, New Process for injury claims, Personal Injury

So why use a Forensic Accountant?

4 03 2010

Guest Blogger, Richard Forth the Managing Director of specialist Leeds- based forensic accounting firm, Forth Associates explains

I am often asked the question “So why do we need to use a Forensic Accountant?  What is wrong with our normal Accountants?”

The answer is, quite simply, that there is nothing wrong with your normal Accountants when they are preparing your year end Accounts, Tax Returns etc, in that this is where their experience lies and it is that experience, coupled with their knowledge of your business, that ensures all of these documents are prepared correctly and submitted to the relevant parties.

Our experience as Forensic Accountants is somewhat different, in that we operate in the area between the legal profession and the accountancy profession, using our skills obtained from training in the accountancy field, but also our knowledge of the law in respect to formulation of quantum in legal cases. The marrying of these skills enables us to prepare reports / advices which pull together rafts of relevant accounting documentation into a report format understood by the Court but, importantly, presented within the prevailing legal framework, such that the losses as presented follow all of the rules established by years of quantum based case law.

This is not a task which necessarily excludes input from your own accountant as they can furnish us with vital knowledge / information to assist us in our task. By presenting losses in this cogent and accepted format, it assists in progressing a case forward from a legal perspective and expediting settlement in the case.

It is often the case that we end up getting involved in cases where there has been substantial circular correspondence from Claimant to Insurance Company to the Claimant’s own accountant which has proved costly and frustrating and in many circumstances simply caused by a lack of knowledge in terms of presentation of information.

Richard Forth

Forth Associates


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Categories : Forensic Accountants, Guest blogs

Forensic Accounting

28 02 2010

A FORENSIC ACCOUNTANT OR A LOSS ADJUSTER IN FORENSIC ACCOUNTANT’S CLOTHES?

Guest blogger Richard Forth of Forth Associates in Leeds describes some concerns about the use of forensic accountants by some insurers

As many Claimant Personal Injury Practitioners will be aware, ithe managing director of Leeds basedt has become the increasing practise of many Insurance Companies, over the course of the past couple of years, to utilise the services of certain firms of Forensic Accountants to consider loss of earnings / loss of profits claims presented by them, in the pre issue phase of cases, to arrive at an assessment of such Claimant’s losses. 

Whilst, ostensibly, it could be argued that the formulation of an independent assessment of such losses, in the pre issue phase of the case, is useful, we have listened to our Claimant Personal Injury Practitioner clients and note that many have voiced significant concerns, with the way certain purportedly independent firms are undertaking this practise, for a number of different reasons, the often quoted ones being:

a)         Disproportionate requests for significant financial information in small loss cases.

b)         Perceived arbitrary assessment of losses, hidden behind a purported Expert opinion (so called spurious academia) with no detailed specified reasons as to why that assessment has been made.

c)         A perception that, in effect, the Forensic Accountants are not undertaking a full and comprehensive forensic task, rather adopting a loss adjusting type approach for the benefit of their insurance clients.

Our Claimant Personal Injury Practitioner clients have identified a number of cases where their clients have been absolutely adamant that the assessment of losses, provided by the independent Forensic Accountant in their case, was understated and we have seen a significant number of instances where we believe that this is potentially the case.

The moral of the story is beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing and, should you encounter a situation where there is a structured adamance by a Claimant that he or she is correct then full consideration should be given to instructing your own Expert in rebuttal of the other Expert’s evidence.

Richard Forth is the Managing Director of Leeds based Forth Associates offering forensic accounting services to Claimant Lawyers and Insurers alike

 


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Categories : Forensic Accountants, General accident matters, Guest blogs


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