3 years ago my mum and I were traveling on M25 to Southampton when the traffic started to slow and then came to a holt. We were then hit in the rear by a corsa being driven by a young lad and a lady passenger. I got out of the car and checked everyone was ok and they said they were ok and no injuries. I then swapped insurance details with the other driver as my mum was too shaken up to do it. She had been driven the car. The other driver admitted not stopping in time and that it was his fault. We then pulled over at the next services and phoned the insurance company. the drivers details checked out and our car was booked in for repairs. The car was repaired and we thought nothing more of it. Then about a year later mum started receiving letters from various solicitors regarding the drivers injuries??? Apparently the driver had paralysis after the accident according to a report from the doctor. He had however had an accident less than 6 weeks earlier where he had also had to have medical treatment for and had exactly the same injuries (so why was he driving). A witness also then came forward which was very strange as no one had stopped at the time of the accident and made themselves known. The witnessed claimed he saw us swerve in front of the car who hit us. (the traffic was slowing down why would we have swerved into the fast lane on the M25??) Probably not relevant but my mum was a ambulance driver for many years and had never had an accident in her life. After another year of letters back and forth we were asked to make statements and provide dates we were available to go to court. We received a court date and it was cancelled at the last minute. The next letter my mum received was to say the insurance co had settled and her insurance would be going up and she had losted her no claims bonus. Although we were annoyed to be going to court we also wanted to have our say as we had done nothing wrong. Then nearly 3 years to the date of the accident my mum has just received another letter this time from the passenger claiming injuries. Please advise what if anything we can do about this? The stress is making her ill. She had legal cover on her insurance so would this current claim be covered by this?
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This is clearly a non-fault case on your mother's part and the liability should have been 100% against the other driver. The integrity of the "independent" witness should have been closely questioned at the time as that has probably swung matters.
There seems to be a very high likelihood that fraud was involved and there should have been an opportunity to test the case in court.
Unfortunately your mother's insurer seems to have acted in a spineless manner and has conceded on the damage issue ramping up your mother's premiums (which you pay to them of course) for years to come.
Once liability has been conceded on the damage there is very little room for manoeuvre if an injury claim is filed and it is likely the insurer has backed themselves into a position that they will settle that too.
Legal insurance is supposed to cover costs in cases like this but the reality is most motor legal insurance is borderline useless in issues where there is any dispute over liability. Most legal expense insurers operate solely for the purpose of selling non-fault claims on to the highest bidder which is why we came up with AutoLaw at www.24cover.co.uk which is legal cover that actually works. It is the only policy I know of which will fight it out on liability and uses accident and insurance investigators to fight the case and put a lawyer in court in circumstances such as this.
Your current two options are probably either to sue the insurer or take them to the Ombudsman. If you send your contact details to asklucy@honestjohn.co.uk I will advise in more detail and see what we can do.
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