Today’s blog entry is aimed at those readers who are parents and serves as a warning of how the responsible party’s insurers can put you at risk if your child is involved in an accident that wasn’t their fault. To put this into some context I will provide a quick capsule review at how you can claim on behalf of your child if they are injured in an accident.
The usual way of claiming is that your solicitor will appoint you to represent your child’s interests and you will be their point of contact with the solicitor. If your child’s claim is accepted they will have a medical appointment with a consultant who then prepares a report that your solicitor sends to a barrister who will value your claim. The next step is for court proceedings to be issued so as a judge can conduct a hearing to determine the level of your child’s compensation which should then be held on trust until they are eighteen and old enough to decide how they want to spend it.
This all seems straightforward in theory but unscrupulous insurers will often try and bypass this system by making offers to settle your child’s claim before your child has even been sent to their medical appointment.
Although it may seem acceptable if the insurer puts an offer of say £1,000.00 on the table to settle the claim, it is a real risk if you accept such an offer. The main reasons for this are that the claim will come to an end (as a judge will not be required to officially approve the compensation figure) and you will be required to sign a parental indemnity form.
The danger of this is that the form is worded in such a way that by signing it your child will be allowed to sue you when they are of full age if they believe that by accepting the offer you did not act in their best interests. Therefore it is always best to take the court route to settle the claim not matter how tempting an initial offer from the other party’s insurer is as by accepting it you may leave yourself open to causing unnecessary family troubles in later years.
