If you decide to claim after being involved in a road traffic accident, you must be aware of something called Third Party Capture. This is basically steps taken by the insurance company to settle your claim directly with you. This provides an opportunity for the insurers to make a financial gain by under settling your claim.
Here’s how it works.. If you have been involved in a road traffic accident you’ll find that you’ll be contacted by many different parties in an attempt to have a hand in your compensation claim. Even the insurance company for the person at fault may contact you to try and persuade you to make a claim directly through them. The third parties insurance company will tell you that it will be in your interests to make a claim with them. They will tell you that; your claim will be settled in a short amount of time, perhaps a matter of weeks. You could have your compensation in your bank account almost immediately.
However, what the third party insurance company doesn’t tell you is that your claim is likely to be under settled in a big way. Yes they may be able to settle your claim and provide you with your compensation in a matter of weeks but think about it logically; how can they possibly do this and provide you with the compensation you deserve in a matter of weeks? Your injuries and needs should be assessed before the compensation figure is even discussed. Your injuries need to be determined by a medical expert; you will need to attend an appointment whereby you are examined to understand the effects of these injuries and if they are affecting your day to day life. The effects of the accident may persist for a long time but unfortunately once you have accepted your settlement figure you will be unable to claim any more compensation.
It would also be advisable to take into consideration the expenses that accident may have caused you. If you were unable to attend work as a result of your accident you can claim for a loss of earnings. Perhaps you needed additional care as a result of your accident, if so you can claim for the costs of this, even if the person caring for you was a family member. You can also claim for prescription costs for treatments and medicines. All this information should be collated and passed onto an specialist injury solicitor so that you have peace of mind in knowing that the accident won’t have cost you any money.
You need to be very careful when choosing the correct company to deal with your claim; you want to know that you will receive the compensation and treatment you deserve. It is most advisable to choose an independent firm of solicitors. You will know that the firm will fight for 100% of the compensation you deserve.
Our advice is DON’T deal directly with insurers but instead you should GO DIRECT to Injury Lawyers like us.
