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Claire's Story.
Claire was painfully "rear ended" by Mr Dragon.
Claire had been waiting at a pedestrian crossing in her Vauxhall Corsa when Mr Dragon, driving his Range Rover, put his foot on the throttle instead of the brake!
Mr Dragon immediately apologised and gave his name and address but he did not have his insurance details on him. Claire wisely took the details of a pedestrian (Mrs I Sawit) who had been crossing the road at the time.
Later that evening Claire felt her neck beginning to stiffen up and the next day her neck was really painful and restricted. She visited her GP who checked her over and advised her to take strong pain killers and to keep moving her neck. He gave her a sick note for two weeks.
Claire phoned our Claims-Line on 08707 445 952. We took all the information over the telephone and started her claim straight away. We immediately checked the computerised insurance database which gave us Mr Dragon's insurance details
We quickly contacted the third party insurers who said that Mr Dragon had not yet reported the accident but the insurers agreed to urgently look into the matter.
The witness, Mrs Sawit, was approached and she willingly provided a statement clearly blaming Mr Dragon for the accident.
We chased up the third party insurers and the next day we were told by the insurers that Mr Dragon had now reported the accident and that liability was fully admitted. Claire was promptly told of this good news.
We sent out a formal "Protocol Claim Letter" to the third party insurers. We explained to Claire that RTA claims are dealt with under a Protocol. Under this Protocol both sides agree the appointment of the medical expert, and the insurers are given up to 3 months to investigate the claim. After this, the medical report would be sent to the insurers along with details of all the other losses that Claire had sustained. Under the rules of the Protocol, because the insurers had already admitted liability, they would then have to make a settlement offer to Claire. We further explained that it would only be necessary to commence Court proceedings if the parties could not agree a settlement figure and that these days, the vast majority of RTA cases are settled on an amicable basis without any Court procedures or Court hearings.
At the time of the accident, Claire was insured third party. Her car could not be driven because of the crash damage. We arranged a replacement car for Claire whilst her claim was sorted out. An engineer inspected her car and declared it to be a write off. A cheque for the "total loss settlement" was received a week later and Claire was able to buy herself a new car.
For the first 4 weeks after the accident, Claire was quite badly effected by the injuries, she avoided going out and missed a really important national lawn tennis competition that she had been due to play in. Claire found that after about 4 weeks her injuries began to improve and, rather than being in pain all the time, the pain then started to become intermittent and less intense.
At four months after the accident, Claire was medically examined by the appointed expert, Dr Goodhands. We had already obtained Claire's medical records, so the doctor already knew something about Claire's case. The medical appointment was in Scarborough which is where Claire works. It took place in Claire's lunch hour and lasted 45 minutes. Claire felt that the doctor gave her a really thorough going over, and she was able to ask him questions which her GP had not really had time for. As Claire was still suffering some pain, he advised her that she might benefit from 6 sessions of physiotherapy and he recommended a good physiotherapist in the area.
Claire obtained an estimate for the physiotherapy and we arranged an interim payment so the treatment could go ahead.
Three weeks after Claire's appointment with Dr Goodhands, his report arrived and it was sent to Claire for her approval before being disclosed to the insurers. The Dr Goodhands advised that he hoped Claire would be fully recovered within 12 months of the accident. We explained to Claire that she could either trust the doctor's prognosis and settle her claim immediately, or if she was not too sure, she could if she wanted to, wait until the 12 months were up to see if she had gotten fully better. We also explained that although Dr Goodhands was very reliable, to be fair, he could not fully predict the future. Claire was warned that she could not come back asking for more money if her injuries ended up lasting longer than was expected!
However, Claire felt that she was making really excellent progress with the physiotherapy and she therefore confirmed that she was now happy to settle the case as quickly as possible.
The insurers made an initial offer of £1800 for the injury but we advised that this was rather low because of the time off work, the missed tennis competition (her season had been ruined) and the fact that Claire needed physiotherapy. After some further negotiation, the insurers made an improved offer of £2800 which we advised her to accept. Eighteen days later, Claire was really pleased to receive her final settlement cheque, just as promised with not a penny deducted!
Some time later...
Claire is now fully recovered from her injuries and is looking forward to the next tennis season when she will be back on winning form. Understandably, she still feels a bit apprehensive whenever she passes the pedestrian crossing where the accident took place.
