i think i did sign some thing and send it back. its seperate from car damages thats been settled.
i said put in a claim for 1500 and they said it dont work like that :bang: makes me wonder if they get work from the company i am claiming off and are trying to stay in their good books

dave said:

makes me wonder if they get work from the company i am claiming off and are trying to stay in their good books

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Thats exactly how it works unfortunately

Tell them you'll except no less that £1500 and that the other side can work for there. When they say it don't work like that tell them your not accepting what they say and see what they say to that, as they can't just make a random offer for you without your say so.

I would be careful to accept anything too soon for starters, once you accept a figure you can't claim later for additional injuries, this is why they get you to settle "in full and final" as early as they can. If it goes on too long the "no win no fee" solicitors lose out and generally the third party insurers lose out as they normally have to pay out more (not always). I got offered £2500 for a rear end but turned it down, I refused improved offers for 5 years until the "no win, no fee" solicitors said I would have to start paying myself if I wanted to go to court as they thought I a should accept. Needless to say I could not afford to pay, but still received much more in the end that the first offer and all the costs where covered on top. I did feel that in the end the "no win no fee" solicitors were more concerend with getting there costs paid than my damages, but as Panda states, they new I was boss within the limitations of the legal system. My main lifelong issues I have didnt start until after about 1 year to be really obvious, by then it was impossible to prove for sure legally, so be warned.

I'm still trying to understand who instructed these solicitors - your own insurers or the other side? Or someone else - e.g. the car hire company or repairer?

If your own insurers did instruct them then who are both insurers? I'm wondering whether the whole lot of them are the same company, or the solicitor does a lot of work for the 3rd party insurer and is trying to keep them sweet.

TBH the £400 did sound low to me at first, but from a quick google I saw figures of £850 for 4 weeks, so thought it's perhaps OK.

I got a grand for whiplash about 15 years ago, but it was a long duration. I think they're also currently trying to limit payouts as it's all got a bit out of hand recently, now that everyone knows to try it on. I'm not suggesting you're dishonest, but lots of others are, which has driven the costs up. In fact if you were dishonest you wouldn't have told them it was fine after a week.

Its the dishonest ones that make it so hard for the people who are really in need. Certainly in my case the private doctors instructed by both sides where rubbish. Unless you have visible injuries its almost impossible to prove either way. However from what I saw the ones who act in worse pain, showed more symptoms (dare I say faked it) seemed be dealt with more sympathetically and believed more, even though I had seen some of them before they arrived at the doctors (same train). Obviously the walk from the train station must have made them much worse, its the only answer. If you man up and get on with it, you can go get f****d. No wonder people cheat the system, honesty doesn't pay.

Doofer said:

I'm still trying to understand who instructed these solicitors - your own insurers or the other side? Or someone else - e.g. the car hire company or repairer?

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these did http://www.callfiatfirst.co.uk/

dave said:

these did http://www.callfiatfirst.co.uk/

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These (at least) are all run by Retention UK Ltd:

http://www.callfiatfirst.co.uk/
http://www.callhyundaifirst.co.uk/
http://www.callalfaromeofirst.co.uk/
http://www.callmazdafirst.co.uk/
http://www.callsuzukifirst.co.uk/
http://www.callmitsubishifirst.co.uk/

They do seem to be approved by the various car companies though, so if you're not happy with their service then be sure to let Fiat customer service know about it.

I'd guess they're making a fortune by taking referral fees from the solicitors, and are just paying the car companies a fee to rent their logo and name.

I'd call it deliberately misleading (as you think it's Fiat looking after you). They'd call it a business.

Shocking that's it's not actually Fiat. I thought it was.

Doofer said:

These (at least) are all run by Retention UK Ltd:

http://www.callfiatfirst.co.uk/
http://www.callhyundaifirst.co.uk/
http://www.callalfaromeofirst.co.uk/
http://www.callmazdafirst.co.uk/
http://www.callsuzukifirst.co.uk/
http://www.callmitsubishifirst.co.uk/

They do seem to be approved by the various car companies though, so if you're not happy with their service then be sure to let Fiat customer service know about it.

I'd guess they're making a fortune by taking referral fees from the solicitors, and are just paying the car companies a fee to rent their logo and name.

I'd call it deliberately misleading (as you think it's Fiat looking after you). They'd call it a business.

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That is Simula to what i said in post 39. my own insurance company and the solisitor they gave me were very good when some one went into the back of my punto, I thought id give call fiat first a try so i could write a review on the forum, i'd already pointed another member over to them and they were pleased with the service, they didn't have an injury though.

ended up only getting £325 for injuries another cheque is supposed to ne coming for £52 to cover other losses fuel and phone calls, but not they are saying tp insurers need my national insurance number before they will relese the 2nd cheque, why would they need this?

reminder! the firm "call fiat first" gave me to deal with this is http://www.new-law.co.uk/ never use them they are useless

Might be anti fraud thing Dave why they need NI number, but I'd ask why before hand and say you're not happy to do so as could cloan your identity etc.

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Might be anti fraud thing Dave why they need NI number, but I'd ask why before hand and say you're not happy to do so as could cloan your identity etc.

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i asked they said

"Some insurers will request this information to confirm that you haven’t received medical treatment on the NHS as a result of the accident. This is to make sure that they do not need to reimburse the NHS for these costs".

That makes no sense what so ever as they have already sent the injury money. so i replied telling them so

dave said:

i asked they said

"Some insurers will request this information to confirm that you haven’t received medical treatment on the NHS as a result of the accident. This is to make sure that they do not need to reimburse the NHS for these costs".

That makes no sense what so ever as they have already sent the injury money. so i replied telling them so

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Yeah, irrelivent for what the 2nd cheque is for like you say.

The NHS can bill an insurance company a set charge for an ambulance attending. I forget how much it is, but I still don't see why they'd need your NI number.

What they've agreed with you is compensation for your suffering. Whether they need to pay the NHS makes no difference at all. Are they saying that if they need to pay the NHS then you'd get less (i.e. you'd have suffered less)?

If you took them to court then I can't see how or why you'd be ordered to hand over your NI number, so I can't see how it's relevant.

NI No for the 2nd cheque sounds a bit iffy to me as well.

Wouldn't surprise me if someone was supposed to get it before the first cheque was issued but forgot / didn't bother and now there's a bit of backside covering going on.

i would battle the solicitors, i got hit by a range rover in 2010 whilst cycling, i was in physio for 3 months, and had quite alot of injuries including nerve dmage, muscle damage, broken ribs etc etc, i got offered a measly amount to start with only 6 weeks after the accident, my solictor was useless, and in the end i had to settle for £2,500 which i thiought was ok, but not fanatstic, but i just wanted to draw a line under it, bearing in mind my son was only 6 months old, so i could not help out at home for around 5 months, due to my nerve damage i could not grip anything and had pins and needles in my right arm and hand for 9 months, i had a medical examination 2 months after, and all he did was talk to me, they settled the bill for my bike as it was a total loss and had my bike shop break down the costs etc, but personal injury they didn't really want to know. I had to send photo's and give them the ok to see my medical notes from the hospital... in the end i crumbled as i felt it was causing alot of stress to my family and myself, the correspondence and phone call after phone call became relentless, as did the ever changing court dates.

the other annoying thing was that once i settled i received my cheque, and a letter stating what i got etc i paid the cheque in and then went on a well deserved holiday with my family, 6 months later they called me up basically calling me a thief and said i owed them £347.... i said what for they said for my physio, and that they sent the cheque but had given me too much money, so i had to argue that one with the solictor, he got very angry with me and was extremely rude, i said i had all my correspondence and that at no time there was no talk of me paying for my physio at which pint he shut up and hung up.....

be warned check everything and call them to talk everything through as they record it and have to keep it for a certain amount of time so get it straight with them then you will not have any problems later down the line.

as for personal injury, a guy i worked with got knocked off his bike, broke his collar bone, he got 5k, i had alot of injuries and got half what he did, if it happened again would i call one....NO, i would use my house insurance policy which i have 150k legal expenses insurance i think they would do better than a no won no fee to be honest.

good luck and let us know how you get on