Cycling UK Forum

In August I was knocked off my bike by a motorist who admitted liability, the police/ ambulance were called and the driver admitted liability to the police and I have photographic evidence of my injuries. I have a good idea what the compensation should be ( about 2K ) and I am not interested in squeezing the last penny out of the insurance company. I'm also aware that these claims companies will charge the insurance co. about £2.5k plus for their imput; my question is as liability is established would the insurance company deal direct with me? Or am I being daft and should just get a claims company involved?

They will deal direct with you, but you might end up with a lower offer than if you were using a claims company or solicitor. So long as you are happy with what they offer, then that may not matter.

Make sure that you get sufficient compensation for your injuries (including pain and suffering) and that you don't have any ongoing health problems. A solicitor used to dealing with these claims will know how much to expect for a particular injury.

My son was knocked off and sustained minimal damage to the bike, but had a nasty cut to his elbow, which meant he is permanently scarred and couldn't ride for about 4 weeks after being knocked off. He got £1500 compensation, but we did use British Cycling's claim service and the claim was handled by their solicitor. That was actually more than I was expecting.

Yes, they will deal with you direct although I had to go to Court to get them to pay out. But don't expect them to be fair and reasonable in return for you being fair and reasonable. They won't and will be aiming to get away with as little as possible and exploit your reasonableness in that aim.

My experience matches Tony's above.

I do think that there is an (understandable) desire on their part never to allow the public to think that you can make money out of them.
So I believe they would rather pay out £5,000 to official contacts like Solicitors than put £500 in the hands of a claimant.

I'm not sure what you mean by a claims company. You need a solicitor IMO. For some reason which is quite beyond me and probably related to the world of daytime telly, one of the biggest firms of solicitors in the land, Russell, Jones and Walker who also provide the CTC claims srvice use the stage name Claims Direct.

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