The accident was my fault and I apologised to the other driver. I reported it to my insurer who then passed my details to a company who said “there’s a pot of money” and gave me a free hire bike.
They now want me to go to court to sue the car driver but it wasn’t her fault. The claims handler and his boss said it will be fine and these cases settle without going to court. What do I do?
Answer
There’s no such thing as a free lunch and there’s no ‘pot of money’ waiting, as this accident was your fault.
Don’t let this bent company bully you into lying on any documentation. If a judge finds you’ve deliberately lied, at best you’ll be ordered to pay the car driver’s legal costs; and at worse it will time spent at Her Majesty’s Pleasure.
Your insurer appears to have a relationship with a very dodgy company or solicitors’ firm. I also suspect your ‘claims handler’ and his ‘boss’ are about as legally qualified as my pet cat.
File a written formal complaint with the company. If it’s not dealt with properly then you can file a complaint with The Legal Ombudsman who investigates different types of legal service problems.
If you have any doubts get legal advice from a qualified solicitor. Whatever you do, don’t lie. It will come back and haunt you.
Andrew ‘Chef’ Prendergast
On 2 Wheels March 2018
