If you have been involved in a road traffic accident, a few pieces of bite size knowledge on the Road Traffic Protocol that guide claims can be seen as useful. The protocol is used for claims that have a potential value of up to £25,000 although the majority of claims are worth less than £10,000. We as solicitors will use the rules to pursue the insurers of the driver at fault efficiently and effectively.
The protocol consists of three stages:
Stage (1) If you are unfortunate enough to be injured by a vehicle – moving or not – the first step is to call The Injury Lawyers on 0800 634 75 75 and we will guide you through what we call a CNF (Claim Notification Form) where we will ask you vital questions regarding your accident and complete the form online. This form will then be sent to the insurers of the driver at fault electronically to start the process.
The insurers will normally have a total of 15 business days to respond (a fairly short amount of time). If the insurer accepts responsibility then we can continue using the protocol process, but if they deny liability the process will be handled outside of this protocol. We will need to fight for the claim so things work very differently.
Stage (2) If liability is accepted, we normally have 35 days to reach a settlement figure with the insurers. This period can be extended but only if both we and the insurers are happy to do so. However, this often requires medical evidence – such as photographs of the injuries sustained.
Interim payments can also decided at this stage – for example if you have had time off work or has had to pay for any medical treatment then we can ask the insurers to pay for this before the case has settled as a part payment early (known as an interim payment). For the majority of cases the claim stops here with a successful agreement on a final compensation amount between us and the insurers.
Stage (3) This stage is only used if we cannot agree on a settlement figure for the case. If this occurs then the case may need to be taken to court where appropriate compensation amount can be determined by a Judge. This is rare though.
For help and advice, call 0800 634 75 75 today.
