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Sometime ago a bloke sideswiped our car, bloke then puts a claim in saying we hit the side of his car, we have 2 independent witnesses so insurance company told him to do one, he's since been to a "specialist medical claim" firm, bigged up his injuries and added a load of BS about events post crash (which we have another witness who can dispute). Our insurance maintained the "do one" attitude but now this bloke has suddenly found a witness to back up his side of the events and due to this our insurance co are starting to wobble about this possibly going to court.
They've asked for permission to offer 50/50 70/30 or 100% payout as they see fit. There doesn't appear to be an option to only give permission for 1 or 2 of those options,it's all or nothing.
So can I realistically withold permission to pay this lying scumbag or do I get to have a large claim against me for the next few years? Am I better off trusting the insurance legal team who are getting edgy?
I'll be calling them in the next couple of days to discuss but wanted any info/ideas first.
I'd like to see how big the witnesses's metaphorical balls are when asked to potentially perjure himself in court.
If what you are saying is correct, then do not give permission - but be prepared to (possibly) attend court.
Witnesses will lie in court all day long. They will do so quite badly though in my experience - make your insurance company do what they are supposed to do and take it to court. Make sure you get to court early and have some time with your barrister - these guys/girls go from one case to another and 15 minutes bringing them up to speed will help you enormously.
I'd like to see how big the witnesses's metaphorical balls are when asked to potentially perjure himself in court.
+1. Refer them to the prior case of Arkell vs Pressdram.
Only downside to court I saw was [i]IF[/i] his witness is dodgy then he's guaranteed to turn up to court whereas we are depending on the kindness of strangers, with no vested interest, to take a day off work to turn up.
Worst case we lose in court, how much worse would it be? two, three times as much to pay out? Lots more? (I'm worried about my premium for the next few years, aswell as not paying out to fraudulent nobbers)
If my brother's experience is anything to go by - he was involved in a crash and the Ins. Co. wanted to settle 50/50 but my brother fought to not do this as he was 100% not at fault. When the other party subsequently claimed for personal injuries my brother's ins. co. decided to let it go to court.
Within a few short minutes of questioning on both sides the Magistrate found in my brother's favour simply because he could confirm all the details leading up to and after the crash clearly and confidently and the other party was clearly struggling simply because he was making shit up and their holes started to show up very quickly.
Your premium is going up whether you take this to court or if your insurance company pay him off to go away. Talk to your insurance company to get the full info, get your car repaired, move on.
Sorry to say but if your insurance are asking then 50/50 is your best bet for lack of long term stress.
assuming 50/50* is "knock for knock" I'd happily settle for that, it was a low energy crash our car is still driveable, just a couple of panels lightly damaged. Having previously had insurers roll over on an incident for several hundred pounds that wasn't our fault I'm eager not to have it happen again for a several thousand pound incident.
*ie not we pay 50% of his asking figure. This case appears to be him and his claim firm suing us, not his insurers v our insurers, so dunno if knock for knock is apt in these circumstances.