Had a car accident which wasn't your fault? Find out how to ensure your insurance claim is successful.
In Part One, I discussed the losses you can claim if you have a car accident that's not your fault.
Now, I'm going to tell you how to successfully make that claim.
Remember, your own car insurance provider won't pay up for any of your losses.* Instead, you have to pursue the insurer of the driver who caused the accident.
Let's look at how you can do this.
Legal expenses insurance
Check if you have a legal-expenses insurance, which will recover your losses for you. Often this insurance is sold to you at the same time as your car-insurance policy. Call your legal-expenses provider as soon as possible to get the claim going, as it can take a long time. What's more, if you don't report it within a period that's set out in your legal-expenses contract, the provider can refuse to handle your claim.
The legal expenses firm should then deal with it. Quite often your case handler is a semi-qualified legal professional, although sometimes it's just a layperson with some internal training; there's no money in road-accident cases unless there's some significant injury. Still, these firms are taken more seriously by the other party's insurer than you would be, thus making it easier to claim.
No win, no fee
If you have an injury, you can also approach a no win, no fee firm. It will seek compensation for your injuries, and should also agree to add on any other uninsured items, such as your policy excess, loss of earnings, loss of use etc.
You might want to approach a few of these firms to be sure about the fee they take from your `winnings', and to find one you're comfortable with. You could even approach one to deal with your claim if you're not happy with your legal-expenses provider, but it's best to make a final decision as soon as possible, and not to keep changing firms.
Credit hire
You don't have to wait for the other party's insurer to offer you a vehicle. If you're not entitled to a courtesy car, or the courtesy cars offered by your insurer are not good enough for your needs, you can hire a vehicle using a credit-hire company. These companies will provide you with a car and send the bill direct to the other party's insurers. If you have an injury, the company will also normally offer you a no win, no fee deal. They will repair your car for you and help you claim all your uninsured losses - sometimes even if you have no injury, so you could ask.
You can only use credit hire if you and the credit-hire company are certain you will get the other party's insurer's agreement that you're not at fault for the accident.
(Legal-expenses insurers, `no win, no fee' firms, and credit-hire companies will all sometimes take on your case even if you are partly to blame for the accident, but only if you have an injury. It's worth asking in these cases.)
Your insurer
If you sustained no injury, and have no legal-expenses insurance and no credit hire, it gets tougher to get someone to support your claim. Try your insurernext. Did it pay for your repairs initially? If so, you could send them copies of your evidence (e.g. bus fares, dates you were without a vehicle etc) and ask them, very politely, if they'll add your losses to the claim when it sends the repair invoice to the other party's insurers. This sometimes works.
Hire a lawyer
Alternatively, you could hire a lawyer. The problem with that is it's quite likely you won't be able to claim back the full cost of a lawyer. Furthermore, not many lawyers would be interested in such cases.
That leaves you with one option: deal with it yourself. You'll be able to get guidance online somewhere, I've no doubt. Hopefully my tips here will help you to prepare the evidence you need.
Don't rush in
Be aware that, if the other party's car insurance provider hasn't admitted liability, it may be that there is not enough evidence to support you in the end, even if you were 100% innocent. You could end up shouldering some of the costs. So it's always best to wait till the other insurer admits fault before doing things that are too costly.
Drive safely!
* It is possible to get a little compensation from your own insurer for death or certain injuries if you have a comprehensive policy, but this is rare.
> Compare car insurance and get quotes with or without legal-expenses cover and breakdown cover.