Ready To Talk About It

Off-topic
1

Starting from the beginning, for those who don’t know, I got knocked off my bike way back on 30th January this year and still don’t have a bike…

A dude failed to give way to the right at a roundabout, I was on the right.

He came scraping up my left hand side from behind and knocked me off.

Never having had an accident before, I didn’t really know how the insurance industry worked. I took my insurance out with Honda Insurance, the certificate they sent me was headed CIA and when I rang the number on it, a company called Plantec answered.

Shortly before the accident, I had several renewal letters from Honda, stating that I had to renew on or before the 30th January and that insurers no longer give “days of grace” so it was imperative I renewed on that day.

Foolishly, I assumed that I was covered up until 30th January - my logic being that if there is no grace period, my insurance must run out on the 30th, otherwise I could have gone out all day on the 30th, had an accident and then gotten home and renewed it - effectively a “grace period”.

I decided not to renew with Honda and took out a policy with Swinton which started on 31st January - the day, i believed, after my old policy finished.

I had the accident on 30th and it turned out that my policy with Honda actually ended on 29th January, so on the day I had the accident, I was uninsured.

Lesson learned - in future, always look at my policy document rather than trust the renewal letters. My bad.

Knowing that if I didn’t win 100% against the third party, I would have to pay the remainder out of my own pocket, I was reluctant to take a courtesy bike, so I opted to use public transport - I figured at least that way I would be feeding in cash that I could reclaim, rather than running up a bill that I may not be able to pay (although now, having spoken to a number of companies, I realise I could have gotten a totally free replacement - again - live and learn).

At first, I kind of figured that it was coming up to February, the weather was bad and all, so travelling by train might not be a bad thing, but here we are, 4 months on, with good weather and no bike!

Anyways, I’m lucky insofar as I got a good solicitor company to represent me (Bromiley Holcroft - they are mentioned favourably elsewhere on this site) and they have kept me informed and have consulted me every step of the way. Ironically, one of their partners has a financial interest in Plantec, the company that picked up the phone when I first rang Honda’s number from the CIA certificate (can you see why this is confusing for a first timer?). But they disclosed that fact up front.

They have treated me as “part of the team” all the way through this process, letting me know that their success (hence their fee) is dependent on my cooperation.

I recently went for a medical examination at their behest and after giving the “expert” all the details, he said that my injuries were consistent with the accident (mild pain in the small of my back and across the back underneath my shoulder blades - thoracic spinal whiplash, apparently).

A week after I saw the doctor, he rang me back to “confirm some details”. that actually meant asking me every question again, including “was I driving the car at the time?” I corrected him and got straight on the phone to Bromiley Holcroft to tell them his treatment of the case worried me. When his report came through, I had to make several amendments to it, simply because the details were all wrong.

Now I have had a first offer - the third party has offered 50-50%.

Naturally I am not accepting the first offer and the solicitors have said that in this case, they are quite happy to go to court (they have taken out an insurance policy to cover their costs in the event this might happen - why wouldn’t they - more work for them. Or am I being ungracious?)

So negotiations have started, I’m waiting to see what the next offer is. I’m not greedy - there is about £1k damage to my bike, so the £400 in train fares that I have spent will cover my share of the repairs as long as I get at least 75-25% in my favour.

They will claim for my lid as well and there will be the personal injury payment, which might cover my DAS and a deposit on a big bike.

I haven’t really spoken about this process on here because it gets me down - its a long, drawn out process for a SMIDSY.

But at least now there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I’ll update once I know more.

2

Good luck mate…guess it’s still too soon to be pulling yer leg about being an uninsured rider;) so will leave the major mickey taking until you are back on the road - not too long I hope.

3

Well good luck to you, my question though is how do you still have a case if you weren’t insured on the day the accident occurred?

Regards,

BM

4

If someone else is at fault, you don’t have to be insured and it does not preclude you from making a claim under a conditional fee agreement (no win no fee).

My concern is that if a partner at your solicitors has a financial interest in the firm you are claiming from (assuming I have read it right) there should be a question raised as to why they are representing you when there is a conflict of interest, and a CoI search must be dome before any case is accepted

5

good luck with it stevie… hope it ends up in your favour… :slight_smile: sounds like a huge pain in the rear…

6

On the first point, TC, you are absolutely right - I claimed it was 100% the third party’s fault, and Bromiley Holcroft took it on a no-win no-fee basis.

On the second point, I was probably a bit ambiguous.

Plantec, with whom a partner in Bromiley Holcroft has an interest, were simply the company that picked up the phone when I rang the number on Honda’s insurance certificate. They did buggah all, but once BH took up the case, things started moving.

So if I don’t get 100%, I have to pay the remaining percentage out of my own pocket, hence why I drip-fed my cash into train tickets, rather than build up a loan-bike fee. With that and the cash from the personal injury part of the claim, I worked out I can afford 75% in my favour - I’m not greedy, I just want my bike back :frowning:

7

Can you get done by the police for being uninsured? I presume they were present at the scene after the accident.

8

Your insurer will never want you to win 100%-0 though because then they can’t up your insurance the next year.

9

[quote]
Stevie Ramone (06/06/2010)

OK, you have cleared that up, Bromley Holcroft are the firm that your case was referred to, makes sense.

You are probably wise not to go down the route of a hire bike. Just recently the courts have been rejecting hire bike charges because they are so high which has left the client to foot the bill, sometimes thousands of pounds, or the accident management firms have forgotten to include all the costs and then claimed it off the client when the case settles.

Just recently, a guy won his case and was awarded around £10,000, hire bike costs were around £15,000 and the accident management firm forgot to submit the invoice, client lost his compensation and got a bill for a further £5000 because he signed a contract accepting liability for any outstanding liabilities or costs.

It was all in the small print, and because by and large accident management firms are unregulated, he had no come back against them.

I have a client who has been unable to ride for the past 8 months because of his injuries. Accident management firm from day 1 have been pushing him to take a hire bike at around £120 per day. £120 per day for a bike to be sat in the garage. It would be deemed as an unreasonable cost, and had he signed he would not recover the costs and he would become liable for those costs. Had he been offered a car, it would have been different as that would have been deemed reasonable to keep him mobile.

You made the right choice.

10

Technically, yes - regardless of the circumstances, I was uninsured. The third party’s insurers told my solicitors they had informed the police (I guess they are obliged to do so).

However, I still have 7 letters that Honda Insurance sent me saying that I had to renew on the 30th January (the day of the accident).

Unfortunately, on the 29th January I took out the policy with Swinton, to start on 31st January.

So I’m not too worried if I get a knock on the door :wink:

11

Don’t forget that if it gets settled 75/25 in your favour, I assume you still will have to pay 25% of the 3rd party’s costs out of your pocket as you weren’t insured? That could be a large sum if it includes legal costs.
I’m not an expert, just guessing here, but it might be worth being prepared for that.

Good luck though. I hope you get it sorted soon. It’s a frustrating experience for sure.

12

Under a CFA it does not work that way.

The total cost of the award is determined and agreed, and then if there is a degree of contrib to be apportioned, then it is simply deducted from the overall award amount. So lets say someone is awarded £10,000 with 25% contributory negligence, then the claimant will receive £7,500. It is a little more complicated in reality because of disbursments and the like, but that is how it works in simple terms.

There should be no legal costs! Under a CFA, the law firm will have taken out an after the event insurance to protect the claimant from any nasty bills.

This insurance kicks in if the claimant loses and willl cover all the third party legal costs. The claimants lawyers will get paid nothing other than their disbursments which is why there has to be a balance of probability of 51% or more of success in order to get the insurance, which again is paid for by the claimants law firm and then claimed back from the third party on conclusion of a successful case.

With an Accident management firm, you do run the risk of a hefty bill, but with a regulated law firm, then you are on safe ground, there will be no nasty financial shocks and you keep 100% of the award less any contrib.

13

Spot on again T.C - they gave me a detailed explanation of the CFA in advance and showed me the scoring system they use to determine how big their insurance policy needed to be to cover the legal costs. Essentially its a basic risk matrix based on the particular elements of the case.

So based on 75-25, I’m looking at:

c£1000 repairs for the bike (£250 from my own pocket)£240 helmet replacement (£60 from my own pocket)£500 train fares (£375 to come back to me - that covers the bike repair)75% of the personal injury element to be paid to meI don’t know how much the personal injury element will be, but I would have an educated guess at £1,000 - £1,500.

So I should have at least enough for my DAS :slight_smile:

But please keep asking questions - its helpful to clarify these points in my own head, not least so I know what I’m taking about if any of these points are raised as part of my discussions with BH.

14

If you ever need any pointers or guidance, then you are welcome to PM me without obligation and I will be happy to help if I can.

In respect of the value of the PI element of your claim, that comes under what is called General Damages (The specifics you mentioned are called Special Damages) and the value is determined by a number of factors and which will be based on the report provided by the independent medical examiner you will have to see in due course.

A decision will be made as to whether it falls into a minor, intermediate or severe category, and for each category there is an upper and lower limit and will provide a window of values for consideration.

On top of that there is also a payment for pain and suffering which is added to your general damages, but even though someone may have suffered multiple injuries, only one pain and suffering payment is made, but the value will recognise multiple injuries.

15

Interesting. I didn’t know that.

What about damages from the 3rd party, if there were any? Would you still be liable to 25% of those in a 25/75 settlement?
Asking just out of interest …

16

A 75/25 settlement means that the third party has been held 100% liable and they will have to pay for you to be compensated, but there is a 25% deduction from the overall award to take into acccount the level of contributory negligence that has been agreed. So the defendants will receive nothing.

A good example would be if you decided to go out for a ride on your bike and you were not wearing a crash helmet, and subsequently you were hit by a car through no fault of your own, the car driver would be held 100% liable, but there would be an automatic 25% reduction from your award because that is the level of contributory negligence that is awarded for not wearinng a crash helmet.

17

Interesting indeed!

I’m currently in the middle of a claim process and have been offered 80/20 in my favour (up from 50/50 - first offer).

Of course accepting any liability, even 99/1 means that you lose your No Claims Bonus and have to declare the incident for the next 3 years if changing insurers.

18

I thought you had to declare any accident you have been in, liable or not ???

19

Cheers for the offer T.C - I may well take you up on it :wink:

Thankfully, I saw the medical expert quite quickly (within 3 months). Unfortunately he was a berk, so lots of amendments being made to his report.

What I’m claiming for is constant, mild pain in my lower back and underneath my shoulderblades. The medical expert has put it down to thoracic spinal whiplash, estimated to last 6 - 9 months.

20

I suppose so.