Mallory

I cannot add much to the last thread about this issue http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/not-at-fault-but-other-driver-filed-a-claim-anywa-30472.aspx .

This personal injury claim was predicted and you had the opportunity to report the claim to your Insurers. By not doing so, you have affectively accepted the risk yourself. You could phone your Insurers and explain the situation, to see what they say. If you have legal cover under the car policy, could you use this to cover your legal costs. The insurers could refuse to assist you at this late stage. Also not helpful is that you have made offers which could be seen as accepting some liability, if not total fault.

I would personally call the ladies bluff by making her take this to court. Don't forget both you and your son were in the car, so are witness to events. By the sound of it she was on her own, so has no back up. In the court you could ask that she provides further evidence about her injuries to the court. The point of taking this to court is that if the lady has issues to explain, she either may suddenly withdraw the claim if it is dodgy or have difficulty in making her case to the court.

My advice is to check with your Insurers first and then if no joy, let the matter go to court.

My sister had a small bump about 5 years ago and the other driver tried to claim personal injury at the scene of the accident. So my sister called the Police and Ambulance service. The other driver sat in his car until the serivces arrived and claimed he could not move. The Police sussed it was dodgy, so told the driver if he could not move they would call the fire service to cut him out of the car. He still maintained he could not move, so the fire brigade cut the top off a fairly new car. Anyway all the reports from the Police and Hospital doctors were not helpful to his case, so he could not claim. 5 years later the claim is still outstanding as he has gone into hiding.

The moral of my sisters story is never assume any accident is going to be minor. If there is any sign of injury or something fishy ( pajamas and slippers) about the other driver, call the relevant services. The lady could have been drink driving. Also always report the accident to your Insurers, just in case.

Huckster

Back in December I was in a minor car accident. Without going into boring lengthy details, it was caused by another driver performing an illegal maneouvre by overtaking a slow moving vehicle which was letting me out of a layby exit in order to go in. The car scraped the front of mine and sustained a small amount of damage to the back bumper. My car also had minor damage but wasn't worth putting in a claim for as it would have been less than my excess.

Anyway, this other driver initially agreed to settle out of court - we offered to pay half of her repair costs provided she got quotes from different garages and not just the most expensive. But then a couple of days ago I got a letter from a solicitor saying she was going to claim for extensive damage AND personal injury. This is the woman who walked about 100yds from her car to ours to amicably (at the time) exchange details.She's trying to claim we were at fault yet it was her who drove without due care and attention, and illegally overtook the other vehicle.

So, where do I stand? I don't think for one minute that she had either extensive damages or personal injury as the bang wasn't that much of an impact. Can I insist on a full medical examination and garage check to refute her claim? I really don't want it to go to court and I can't afford to pay out the 50/50 my solicitor is trying to negotiate, and I don't see why I should have to as it definitely wasn't our fault! We've already offered a 20% fault (20/80 split in our favour) but this was rejected. Could we insist on this being accepted if there's no evidence to back up her injury and damages claim? This is the first time anything like this has happened to me so I've no idea of the legalities and options...