Insurance Rear End Accident Dispute?

Question

I was hit in the rear end in June, as i moved lane prior to the accident the other party is disputing the claim, 30 seconds after i moved in to the middle lane the traffic stopped causing me to brake hard and the other vehicle hit me. His insurance company is taking me to court and i am the defendant, the insurance company has mentioned quantum? does anyone know what this is, also why are there the prosecution and not my insurance company, this accident is not my fault, but i feel that i have been let down in every way . Any advice would be much appreciated

Answer 1

Your insurance company should handle this. This is why you pay for insurance.  At any rate , if the plaintiff struck your vehicle, sounds like he was following too closely.

Answer 2

I f you are fully comp. you should have placed it in the hands of your insurance co and if you are sued pass the Court papers to them. I am sure it will be settled.

If you are 3rd party get yourself a lawyer you can not fightthis on your own

Answer 3

Quantum is the amount of the claim so it depends on the context.  If this is in correspondence from the other parties insurers or solicitors then they are talking about the amount that they are suing you for - ie the amount they feel their client has lost.  Clearly you are not at fault here so you need to pass this to your insurers IMMEDIATELY for them to defend as there are strict rules in place for responding within good time to such correspondence and it should allow your insurers enough time to prepare a defence.  Your insurance company will pay out whatever you are sued for anyway if you/they lose so I shouldnt worry too much - your insurers should defend this matter for you as I doubt they will want to pay out on your behalf if you were not actually at fault - in fact they should be trying to recover the costs of your cars repair from the other parties insurers if you were fully comp.  If you were third party see if you have any free legal cover with your cover (most do) they will try and recover your uninsured losses by sueing the other party for the costs of your vehicle repair, policy excess if fully comp, any loss of use costs, hire car, personal injury etc.  Its a silly system these days and the only ones really winning are the solicitors who get loads of work from this system!!! - Just play the game and you should win eventually!

Jonathan

Answer 4

If you have been sued, then you have certainly been served with papers.  Contact your own insurance company, open a claim if you have not done so already, and get in contact with your claims adjuster.  Send them copies of the paperwork that you have been served with and work with them.  You have a contract with your own insurance company and they are bound to help defend you.

Answer 5

Quantum - literally "How Much" in latin (does anyone learn classics these days) is basically the amount of damages that are to be claimed - without going into liabilty.

I would have to ask. Are you pursuing a claim against the other driver for uninsured losses - the excess on your policy, whiplash, time off work etc? If not then you should be - and your insurance company should be pursuing a claim for the costs they incurred repairing your car.

If the facts are as stated then I fail to see why a claim has been instigated - the Highway code states you should leave a safe gap between yourself and the car in front and in my experience these cases are invariably settled in favour of the driver in front.

I would certainly find out what your insurers are doig - and also have you notified your legal expenses insurers?

Answer 6

Rear end accidents are usually assumed to be the fault of the striking party, but that is not always the case.  If you made a sudden lane change (especially without signaling) and nailed the brakes, you may be at fault for "failing to yield". You may have made an unexpected lane change when it was not safe to do so, and suddenly greatly decreased the available stopping distance of the car in the lane you darted into.

Whether it turns out to be partially your fault or not based on all the facts and any witnesses, your insurance company should defend you.

Answer 7

To simplify the law, ALL "rear-end" collisions are the fault of the vehicle that drives into you...if he/she did not have time to stop, they were following to closely. If YOU were actually to blame, they would have hit the side of your vehicle, not the back.