Hello all,
A few months ago, my stepdaughter was involved in an RTC in which two people were injured. Unfortunately, it was her fault and the two injured parties are claiming for their injuries which were, thankfully, minor.
The two injured parties are using separate solicitors and one of these solicitors has filed a claim at court, a copy of which has been sent to my stepdaughter with no covering letter. The form asks for her responses, and for various bits of information.
My question is this - should she have been sent this claim form from the court? Surely it should have gone to her insurance company? To make things a little more complicated, she is no longer with the insurance company she was with when she had the collision. Even so, though, they should be sorting this, shouldn't they?
My stepdaughter has indicated that she's just going to ignore the form and presume that her old insurance company will deal with things for her. I think that that is not a wise course of action and that, at the very least, she should contact her old insurance company to make them aware that she has received a claim form.
What do you think?
Thanks in advance, as always.
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With experience of having a personal claim against me after the bus incident...
Forward *everything* to the insurance company dealing with the claim. Answer nothing on any form except from them. Respond to the initial query with a covering letter saying "forwarded to xxx insurance company"
And thats it. Do nothing else.
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Cheers Zero, that's what my approach would be. However, trying to get a head-strong 23-year old to change her mind will not be easy... :-)
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Just tell her that if she fails to follow that advice, she will end up in court paying damages herself.
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I would just add keep a record of what you forward, and when.
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>> I would just add keep a record of what you forward, and when.
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Keep a copy of what you send & post it Recorded delivery (and keep the receipt/POP)
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no need to go that far, if stuff gets lost it will be sent again.
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A summons should be sent by the court and it's purpose would be crystal clear. Not sure whether sending it to an insurer would be good service - the defendant should be personally aware of it albeit that he/she will immediately place dealing with it in the hands of insurers. Sending copies of the praecipe for summons and other papers to a putative defendant used to be heavily frowned on; I don't know if that is still the case.
The fact that it's in danger of coming to court suggests that the insurers are either not doing their job properly or that negotiations have failed. Your stepdaughter should be sending the papers on to the insurer and asking them for an update on the case's progress.
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Injury claim after RTC - advice please. - Zero
