If you have the space and it is off the road, your own home address may be the best place for the vehicle, you are now in control of the claim process.

If you are only insured THIRD PARTY FIRE AND THEFT, you are generally responsible for the recovery charges of your vehicle unless it is someone else’s fault or it says differently in your policy.

BE AWARE! The POLICE have something called “statutory instruments” which they use to arrange the recovery of vehicles through police contractors. These are done at set rates agreed under the above “statutory instruments” and are not cheap.

If the police move your vehicle, you do need to advise Direct Line Claims, within 48hrs, but it is up to you where it gets moved to!

Our advice is that if you can arrange your own recovery do so, rather than allow the police to do it.

How long after a car crash can I make a claim for repair?

If your car is damaged after an accident and you need to make a claim on your insurance to repair it, you can ultimately choose when you wish to make a claim. For a non-fault accident you can use a third-party insurer to cover the costs of your car repairs so there’s no expense to repairing your car immediately.

This also means that to get an update on your repair status you need to call the insurance company again and again. The wait times on such calls can be hours. We offer our clients bespoke repair solutions and we answer your call in less than 1 minute.

Choosing your own repair network

We strongly recommend that you go with this option and send your vehicle to a repair network of your choice. Legislation introduced in 2010 deemed it unfair that insurance companies could dictate to customers who should repair their car. Since then, insurers are not able to force you to use their approved repairers and must still pay-out if you choose your own repairer.

Choosing your own repairer gives you a much wider choice of garages and you have much more control over who repairs your vehicle. Approved repairers typically work in the best interests of the insurance company and may be pressured to repair your vehicle quickly and cheaply, using non-original parts that could invalidate your warranty.

What should you be looking for when choosing a garage for accident repairs?

• Fair and transparent pricing
• Manufacturer-approved repairer if your car is under warranty
• Use OE (original equipment) specification parts
• Guaranteed repairs back to pre-accident condition
• Valid guarantee offered on all repairs

Firstly, fair and transparent pricing is important when handling insurance claims. You need to be able to trust that the quoted price provided by the repairer is honored and that there are not additional fees charged or any extra work undertaken that wasn’t agreed upon.

About Manufacturer-approved Repairers

If your vehicle is under any form of manufacturer warranty, you are likely to require a manufacturer-approved repair service in order to maintain the validity of the warranty. A ‘manufacturer-approved repairer’ will be a garage that has been approved by a car manufacturer to repair their vehicles to meet factory-standards. This is typically achieved once the manufacturer has reviewed the equipment at the garage, provided training on how to fix their cars, and supplied parts.

Going through Direct Line Claims for Repairs

If you’re not at fault for the accident, you will be able to make a non-fault claim as long as your insurer is able to recover the cost from the third-party. In these cases, you will not have to claim on your insurance and your no-claims bonus will be protected.

Direct Line Claims Guide – How To Claim Compensation For Injury

After an accident you can experience Whiplash which is the most common injury type. Whiplash is actually a term used for soft tissue damage that occurs during a vehicle accident or a vehicle accident when hit from behind generally by another car. The quick acceleration, i.e. going for a low speed or stop position causes the head to jerk forward, and then brutally backward, causing whiplash. We make this guide for making Direct Line Claims Whiplash claim in the UK and it will provide you with all the advice and information you need to approach your own claim from a position of understanding.

What Are The Symptoms Of Whiplash Injuries?

Whiplash is an injury to your tendons, muscles, or other soft tissues of your neck. It is caused by a vigorous and sudden movement of the head in one direction, then back again quickly, most generally during a car accident.

Pain from a whiplash injury starts 6 to 12 hours after the injury. You may feel pain on the day of the accident or injury and find that your pain, swelling and bruising increase over the following days.

General symptoms of whiplash include:

• Difficulty moving your neck
• Neck issues: stiffness, pain, tenderness or swelling
• Headaches, problem concentrating
• Muscle weakness or spasms
• Pins and needles, pain or numbness in your hands and arms or shoulders
• Vertigo, dizziness, or tinnitus (ringing in your ears)
• Blurred vision or difficulties swallowing

Could I claim for a whiplash injury from Direct Line Claims insurance?

The moment you think you might have a whiplash injury from a vehicle accident, you should get medical treatment. Bear in mind that whiplash injuries, like cervical strains, don’t forever present themselves immediately after an accident. There are many reasons why the sooner you get treatment, the better.

First, it may be simple to treat the whiplash. If there is soft tissue damage, not taking the right precautions could worsen the pain. Second, it will be easier to file a claim with an insurance firm later on. The longer you wait to seek medical help for a vehicle accident injury, the more likely an insurance firm will assume that the injuries you are claiming are not as extreme as you say they are.

What an Direct Line Claims insurance company may not want you to know

When you are trying to get a vehicle insurance payout for whiplash, there are lots of things you can perform that could help increase the amount of compensation you get. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said the amount a claimant gets in can be increased:

• Always reject the first offer of settlement that the defendant comes out with.
• Consult with injury and accident solicitor to represent them in their claim
• Makes the correct choice over whether to admit a pre-medical settlement offer from the insurance firm

If you need some best suggestions about how to increase the level of compensation you are offered, reach out to our claims team today. They can help you to make the best decisions.

Whiplash claims under Split liability agreements

The term split liability refers to an agreement in which 2 or more parties share the blame for an accident. These kinds of claims are also referred to as 50/50 claims, reflecting the ratio of the equal accountability that is typically divided between 2 claimants.

Other general split liability proportions are:

• 75/25 split in your favor – you will get 75 percent of the full value of your claim from the other party’s insurance firm as you admitted 25 percent liability
• · 25/75 split in other party’s favor – as you have accepted that you were mostly liable for the accident, you will only get twenty-five percent of the full value of your claim from the other party’s insurance

If you accept split liability, you and the other driver would proceed with the process of claims under the agreement that you were both partially to blame.

Should you take the first settlement offered by Direct Line Claims Direct?

If you have suffered trauma or injured as a result of your car accident you may be feeling vulnerable. If you are contacted by Direct Line Claims and offered a settlement for your whiplash claim, you should bear in mind that:

• You don’t have to accept any offer from Direct Line Claims. If you do accept the offer it might be very low than the compensation you would have got if you would used a solicitor or gone to court instead
• Don’t feel any pressure to make a decision immediately. You have up to 3 years from when the accident happened to make a claim for compensation.
• If a Direct Line Claims offers you payment or asks you to sign something, ensure you know what it is for
• If you have been hurt, get a complete medical assessment, to verify any injuries you have got and the likely impact on your life.
• You need to understand the injuries' nature, how serious they are, and whether they will have a long-term impact on your life before you can judge whether any offer is fair.

If you need to speak to somebody to get some legal suggestions about whether you accept a primary settlement offer or not, our claims team can help.

Should I take a pre-medical offer from Direct Line Claims Direct?

Pre-medical offers are proposals to pay compensation before the wounded person has been seen by a medical professional. The objective of a pre-medical offer is to encourage early settlement of the claim. The insurer gets the claim off their books for a fixed amount; the wounded person gets compensation immediately without a medical examination.

Sounds too good but pre-medical offer could be an expensive mistake.

You never know how serious a problem is or what the prognosis will be until you have a medical report. You just get one shot at settling a compensation claim and if you accept a premedical offer and then find out that your injury does not resolve as immediately as you thought, then you cannot claim compensation a second time.

A pre-med offer does not take into consideration the complete value of the claim, such as:

• The length of recuperation period
• The injuries depth
• The level of pain and suffering period
• And, long-term disabilities

And another downside of accepting this offer is that:

• Travel expenses
• Loss of earnings
• Care costs
• Private medical expenses

If you choose to reject a pre-medical offer but would still like to seek compensation for your injuries, you should contact a personal injury law firm for legal advice.

Direct Line Claims whiplash injury compensation calculator

Under the rules introduced in 2021, the whiplash compensation amount you can claim ranges from £240 to £4,215.

Payoutes for whiplash that lasts up to three months are capped at £240. This amount then increases in stages to £4,215 for a damage or injury that lasts up to two years.

The courts have the power to raise a pay-out by up to twenty percent, in serious cases. The following guidelines for whiplash pay-outs are published by the Judicial College, part of the Ministry of Justice.

Length of Injury	Amount for Whiplash Injuries	Whiplash Injury with mild Psychological Injury
Nor more than 3 months	£240	£260
More than 3 months but not more than 6 months	£495	£520
More than 6 months but not more than 9 months	£840	£895
More than 9 months but not more than 12 months	£1320	£1390
More than 12 months but not more than 15 months	£2040	£2125
More than 15 months but not more than 18 months	£3005	£3100

Will I get other types of compensation as part of a whiplash claim?

This list could be wide and is dependent on the details of your specific case, but key examples are:

Missed workdays: if you missed days at work, you may be compensated for the money you would have earned. If some type of disability happens from the accident, you may have a disability claim that can be filed for loss of earning capability, possibly for the rest of your life.

Out of pocket expenses

Quick expenses that you may have to pay, when your health is serious, time is a factor, and you can be compensated for most of the cash you need to spend initially.

Medical expenses

We all know that any hospital visit, medical treatment, and physical therapy can result in big costs to you and your family. Whether you have health insurance or not, many of these expenses have very high costs, or not be covered at all. You and your family’s future may be dependent on your settlement.

If you need lifelong treatment, physical therapy, etc, the costs will go high and you must be provided with the funds required to continue these treatments, as well as continue to provide income for you and your family to sufficiently live on.

The amount of compensation could include the following:

• Treatment expenses
• Prescription costs
• Vehicle repair costs
• Loss of earnings
• Hospital parking expenses
• The cost of adopting your accommodation
• Childcare expenses
• Travel costs

No win, no fee claims against Direct Line Claims Insurance

A No Win, No fee claim provides you the financial confidence and security to pursue justice. Under this kind of agreement, you would not be asked by the solicitor to pay any type of new claims fee. You also would not be expected to pay continued fees, even if it takes many months to reach a right settlement. If the claim fails, and you don’t get any compensation at all, then you don’t pay anything. If you win you pay a percentage of the compensation as solicitors fee.

without exchanging details. Before you call the police please make sure that you are at a safe place, are not blocking any traffic, check for injured persons if any, you should collect all information about the incident along with witness details. Call the police with all of the information you have collected and they should then give you a crime reference number.

What to do if you are hit by an uninsured driver?

You can check if a car is insured by calling your insurance provider or using the Motor Insurance Database’s (MID) ou askMID online service by paying £10. If the other party comes to be uninsured, call the police on 101 and get a Crime reference number. Now you have two options depending on your own insurance cover

• If you have fully comprehensive car insurance. The claims process will be trickier though as your provider won’t be able to recover costs from the other side.
• ‘Third party’ or ‘third party fire and theft’ policy holders won’t be able to make a claim but can apply for compensation through the Motor Insurers’ Bureau (MIB).



You can register for an account with the bureau to complete an application online.

What to do after a car accident that is not your fault?

The above 6 steps guide gives you extensive information about what needs to be done in case of a non fault accident. All the 6 steps should be followed and if the Third Party is aggressive or abusive to you or they engage in a fight or road rage you should call the police immediately. I should insist here once again that all information about the incident should be collected and recorded appropriately.

What to do after a car accident that is your fault?

In the event of a fault accident you should keep calm and go on to collect all the information about the incident and make sure everybody is safe. Call the emergency services if need be. As a Direct Line Claims customer you should not admit any kind of fault at the scene of an accident which also means to not apologize for the situation. Apology at the scene of an accident can be used against you, as if witnesses have seen you apologizing they will tell the insurance company that you have apologized and thus admitted the fault for the accident. If you are blamed for the accident by the third party you need to simply say “No I did not cause the accident”.

What to do if you witness a car accident in the UK?

If you are witness to a car accident in the UK you must always stop and remain at the scene of the accident. Whether you are a witness from another vehicle or as a pedestrian or cyclist bystanders, you must cooperate as an eye witness. First and foremost make sure that those involved are OK and are not injured. Call the emergency services if they are needed.

What happens if you crash a courtesy car?

Insurance for a courtesy car is typically provided by the company providing the vehicle or your insurance company may provide cover for driving a replacement vehicle in your policy. If you crash a courtesy car, you’re likely to be covered in the same way as any other vehicle you drive, which means if the crash is your fault you’ll be required to pay the excess and if you’re not at fault you’ll be able to claim on a third-party insurance.

How long does it take to repair a car after an accident?

Car repair times vary depending on the state of the vehicle. The availability of parts, vehicle transportation and the specialism of the repair can all length repair times. Once your vehicle has been assessed, your repairer should be able to accurately predict how long it will take to be repaired.

References

MIB – If you were hit by a driver without insurance, or someone that left the scene and could not be traced, then the MIB may be able to pay out on your claim. We could help you with this. This page links you to information on whiplash reforms.

Stiff neck or neck pain advice – NHS advice on neck pain or stiff neck symptoms. This link shows self-help techniques and more.

Consultation on whiplash claims – Government consultation on reforms within the whiplash claims system.

Department for Transport: Report on Road Casualties in 2017

House of Commons Transport Committee Report on the Cost of Motor Insurance: Whiplash