Personal Injury Claim

[Ashalak]

Looking for a little advice on the subject of a personal injury claim and what to do!

Basically last July I had a small bump (5-10mph) with a guy who pulled out at a junction in front of me, he should of waited but made no effort in stopping and instead proceeded to cut the corner and driving head on into me. The insurance have been dealing with it since then and only now am I starting to get anywhere with them. They have just re-instated my NCB and I am waiting for his insurance to refund my insurance with my excess that was subtracted from my cash in lieu settlement. I have overwhelming evidence to prove its his fault, from pictures detailing the position of his car to a witness statement who has said he has repeated the same maneuver time and time again. He actually himself didn't think he was in the wrong and even said he was injured in the process and tried to make a claim, this claim was dropped after his solicitors realised he didn't have a leg to stand on.

Now this is where I come to where I need some advice, I myself genuinely did suffer injury from the accident.. Or at least I believed I did seeing as I uncharacteristically developed a pain in the top part of my leg, severe enough to give me a limp for 2-3 weeks.. Something I can only assume was from the effort I put in to the brake peddle to try and avoid the incident in the first place. Everyone told me that I should make a claim, but unfortunately for myself being my first incident I decided not to simply do what every other person does despite probably having more grounds for it than anyone else. I did speak to a solicitor about it roughly 3 weeks after the incident occurred, they did say I have a basis to make a claim but my injury had to persist on for longer than 4 weeks before they where eligible to make a claim against his insurance. At this moment in time I was going to go to the doctors and have my leg examined which is something I haven't done since it happened and still haven't for that matter, this is due to the fact that I can't stand doctors due to having had some bad experiences with them in the past and I did start to see improvement after the 3 weeks, if I hadn't of I'd definitely have gone for fear of long term injury. It took about 6 weeks for my leg to fully heal, which I can only assume was muscular damage although I'm no physiotherapist! I didn't want to effect the outcome of my insurance claim by making a personal injury claim, being as I am a new driver with only 1yr experience it was imperative that I got my first years NCB, coupled with the fact that I didn't want to be someone else claiming off the insurance companies and another person increasing our premiums I have never taken this further.. I have however decided that I have made a mistake, this is purely down to the fact that I have been arse raped by my own insurance company and they have increased my premium by some £500, despite having 1yr NCB and the incident being declared in my favour as non-fault.. Some of this increase is simply down to inflation, but having done quotes with and without the incident occurring its now costing me £500, and will do every year that I have to declare it for between 3-5 years (It seems to vary dependant on insurance).

The big question is this, despite having not been to the doctors or trying to pursue this claim earlier or sooner.. Do I have any grounds to try and make a claim now? If I do claim what effect if any would this have on my insurance both now and in the future?

Sorry for the long post and I appreciate your time and advice, thanks again!

[james@cjperformance]

you have up to three years to make a claim from the date that the accident occured, as for your insurance a personal injusry claim will not affect it what so ever.as it is personal.

i was allways under the impression that if you had an accident and once proven that you were not at fault then you infact do not have to inform the insurance company.if you read the insurance form it will ask you if you have cklaimed against a policy within the last three years for an accident theft or damage, most insurance forms will then give you a drop down which will say claim (non - fault in your case. now think of this logically once your insurance has finalised everything with the other drivers insurance company you have not made a claim as it is the other drivers insurance cmopany that has paid out and not you.you have not made a claim against your insurance policy.

Accident (non - fault) usually is when you have damaged your car and it was not your fault etc, you have not actually claimed on your insurance policy but have claimed on the other persons policy therefore you should not be penalised for it.

example of non fault accident would be if you had a named driver on your policy and they then had an accident in your car, you are not driving the vehicle but still need to make a claim to get your car repaired that would be under accident non fault.

i am not 100% on this but that is what i am lead to believe in the past, i would contact your insurance provider just to doublr check on that. ;)

[Hou]

The non-fault claim shouldn't affect your insurance as said above, all insurances have shot up!

Its down to you if you want to be like all the other people claiming and pushing everyone else's insurance up!!