fatal road traffic accident claim
the challenge:
A high value claim in relation to a fatal road traffic
accident; there were multiple parties involved and there were
complex issues on liability, with the possibility of a responsible
third party.
our approach:
Our in-house investigator was instructed to interview the
insured’s driver and we obtained authority to obtain the full
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) history of the
insured. This enabled us to identify that there were convictions
that had not been declared to the insurer. We advised our client to
take declaration proceedings against the insured, which would
reduce their liability to article 75 insurer. If a successful
declaration could be obtained, and third party responsibility could
be proved to a meaningful degree, then all claims would be passed
to the third party insurer, minimising the costs for our
client.
the result:
The declaration proceedings were approved in the High Court; a
court order was served on the third party insurers, and all third
party claims were settled by them; the best possible outcome was
achieved for our client, with significant savings in terms of
liability (the reserve of £400,000 not being required).