We do get a lot of enquiries from people who are either considering dealing directly with an insurer or Defendant, or who actually are dealing with them, and those who have under settled with them and it’s too late for us to save them.
Why Third Party Capture is Dangerous
Third Party Capture is the term used for when insurers and Defendants approach accident victims directly in an effort to settle without representation. This means that the accident victim has no independent representation and no one looking out for their interests.
The insurers and Defendants may tell you that not getting a lawyer is essentially ‘cutting out the middleman’ but this is utter rubbish. If they do settle, they will normally have to tell you that you have the right to independent legal advice to cover themselves, and they have to advise you of this for a very good reason. That reason is simply that you are at risk when dealing directly.
They sometimes tell you they will pay you more if you deal directly (a sort of bribe) because they save money on not having to pay legal fees. For most cases, legal fees are fixed at less than a thousand pounds so it’s not like they are saving a vast amount of money anyway.
But the bottom line is this – if you settle directly, then the offer being made to you is made up by the people who are responsible for compensating you. The insurers are a private profit making business and their duty is to their shareholders. That means they need to protect their profits and keep their shareholders happy by keeping their profit margins healthy. To do that, they look to save money.
So ask yourself this – why do you really think the insurers want to deal with you directly? The answer is simple – it’s all about saving money, and that’s something to bear in mind. Remember – if they make an offer without medical evidence, then even they don’t know how much the claim should be worth. The only way to maximise a claim is to have a lawyer instruct an appropriate medical expert and review their report.
If they get medical evidence, understand that they get the expert they choose – and there still won’t be a lawyer reviewing it for you.
Is it too late?
If you have accepted an offer from them that’s in full and final settlement, then it may well be. If you later realise that you should have got more, then it might be too late. It could be game over.
The other thing is that, if they have got their own medical evidence and it isn’t very supportive of you, you could be in serious trouble. The experts are meant to be independent and their duty is to the court – but if we get a report we don’t like, there are options. But if they have sight of one because they organised it, then their sight of this is final. If you want another report, they’ll probably want to rely upon the first one.
So I should get a lawyer?
In my opinion, yes – and I’ve given you several reasons above as to why going it alone can leave you in serious trouble. Besides, research has shown that we can get up to four times more than the first offers, and we have seen ourselves when clients have been offered the ‘standard grand’ by the insurers directly, only for us to get them an award of £10,000!
There are now deductions for cases because of legal fee reforms, but you can still be way better off. For starters, the deductions are capped at 25% and we don’t charge that for many cases any way. But you also get an additional 10% in compensation as an offset so the comparisons can show you still get more with a lawyer!
Still not convinced? Think of the phrase that it’s better to be safe than sorry – we’re all about making sure you don’t prejudice your claim, but dealing with the opposition direct is one easy way to end up prejudicing your position.
Be smart – get a lawyer!