The broker is pushing you to their preferred "accident manager" to make sure they make as much money out of you as possible. They will be trying to secure a commission out of a credit hire, possibly for a credit repair (with a bung from the garage) and a claim for any injury. In a non-fault case your accident could be worth around £1200 in referral fees to your broker.

In this case however your claim is not against the underwriter or indeed your insurer but potentially against the insurer of the third party (if you went to direct to your insurer they would be seeking the "referral fee" for using their "accident manager" - in my experience accident m,anagers working for brokers tend to be better than those working for insurers as the broker wishes to ensure their client receives a quality service.

The advantage in dealing directly with the other party's insurer is you don't immediately forfeit your policy excess while the claim is resolved. The disadvantage is it's time consuming and unless you know exactly what you are doing it can be something of a minefield. A good "accident manager" can resolve all these issues and give you a smooth service. A bad one can drop you in the mire with a whopping Credit Hire bill.

In your particular case you have a number of problems:

1. At the moment you do not know the identity of the third party insurer - however this is easily remedied by your agent (whoever that might be) contacting the Motor Insurers Database for the details based on the registration plate. If the other vehicle was not insured then there may be additional problems (see below). The police can also obtain the vehicle and owner ID of course and given the circumstances they may pressure the other party if an accident can be shown to have occurred (the possible charges are usually failure to stop, failure to report and possibly due care and attention). They will probably visit the keeper's address and check for damage on the other vehicle.

2. You then have to show that the other vehicle was at fault. Just because they left the scene - and even if they are charged with failure to stop and report - does not mean they were at fault - although it adds to the suspicion. You do not say whether you have an independent witness but if you do not then there is at least the possibility of it going 50:50 unless there is an admission of liability. (That's why you always want an independent witness where possible).

3. If the other driver is uninsured or the car was stolen then potentially the MIB acts as insurer of last resort. However in a damage-only incident where there is an insurance policy associated with the collision in place - ie yours - the MIB will only get involved in a very limited number of circumstances. In these circumstances there will almost always be a loss to you - either in terms of excess or no claims.

My own feeling is that one of the advantages of having a quality broker - over the direct sales offered by most insurers is that you will receive quality service when things go wrong. You will certainly do better than through the sausage machine operated by most insurer's claims departments.

If the case proves problematical in any way - particularly if any of the points made above come into play or you feel you are not being offered good service please come back tio me and I will see if I can help further.