Duration for PI claim?

DrPhilG

Long story short, reversed into a woman outside work a while back. My fault, wee bit of damage done but nothing big. Practically no speed involved.

Needless to say, she quickly went from "I'm grand, let's settle without insurance" to "ahh my neck is buggered, pay up".

My car and her car have both been sorted but my insurance company say that they're waiting for her to send back a medical report. This happened in April.

Do these things generally drag on for ages? If they send in a report I know my insurance company will pay up, regardless of my suspicions about the legitimacy of her injuries. But if this goes on past next March then I'm left in the position of not being able to change insurance companies when I renew.

My last premium was €500. Given that I'm already facing a bump (lost 2 years NCD) for the accident and everyone else is getting stung with their renewals etc I'm half expecting them to quote me €1500+ and I have absolutely no leverage to negotiate if they do.

KTR1C

After her solicitor submits the claim to the Injuries Board it can take from anything up to 9 - 18 months in my experience.

DrPhilG

KTR1C wrote: »

After her solicitor submits the claim to the Injuries Board it can take from anything up to 9 - 18 months in my experience.

I've had no contact from the injuries board. Her solicitor has contacted my insurance company and that's as far as it has gone.

I say they contacted my insurance company, they actually sent the first letter to me at my workplace which I was furious about.

kirving

And then we have other thread with people complaining about the price of insurance.

THIS is the reason why. An attitude from some people that a little tip give them the right to claim thousands in compensation, and the Irish cute hoor mentality that says good on ya for screwing those nasty insurance companies over.

DrPhilG

I'm all too aware of it. My wife had an accident a few years ago, again very little damage done. The lady involved came off her bicycle and had slight cuts and bruises to her leg.

Scary thing is that she was offered €12k!
Scarier thing is that she turned it down because she wanted more!!!

I'm fully expecting this scammer to walk away with something similar which is a disgrace. And I'm prepared to suffer the inevitable insurance bump. What's annoying me now is that because she's in no hurry to claim her lotto win, I have to get shafted by the insurance companies.

I know that it's the claims that are shoving the insurance so high, but I do firmly believe that they chance their arm. Hence the fact that when you shop around you often end up getting your own company to match what you find. Insurance companies are often daft too. I changed cars earlier in the year and was initially told that the change would mean going from €570 premium up to €1400! Obvious to me that it was a mistake but the insurance guys felt it was perfectly normal. It was only after I went through an official complaint and spoke to a manager that they admitted that they had classed the car wrong and I would be getting a €30 refund for changing!

DrPhilG

If my company comes back with (for example) €1k, I could shop around and end up maybe €7-800. That would be a €300 hike which I can live with due to the average increase all around, and my reduction in NCD.

But if the claim is still open, I just have to take that €1k quote and suck it up.

kyote00

The injuries board publish their stats every year...

Average motor claim in 2013 was 21730 euro...
http://www.injuriesboard.ie/eng/Statistics/Statistics-2013/

Some studies of cases...
http://www.injuriesboard.ie/eng/Claim-Case-Studies/Motor-Accident-Claims/

They even have a calculator....
http://www.injuriesboard.ie/eng/How-to-make-a-claim/Estimate-your-claim/