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Has my accident claim been hijacked by an accident management company?
I was involved in an accident. A car ran into the back of my stationary car at approx 40mph and the driver immediately accepted liability, as have her insurers (RSA). The next day I received two calls, one from A1 Claims and another from a company I thought were RSA's solicitors. I called the solicitors on Wednesday to give basic details of my daughter's whiplash injuries when they said they didn't have my address. Maybe the penny should have dropped then.
Yesterday, I received a bundle of letters and blank forms from the solicitors. One letter states that "Your file has been passed to our claims dept. For the initial work we have done on your behalf we have paid an admin fee. This is a one-off and will be met by us in full...". In another letter entitled "Client Care", they list their charges at £220/hour (even though they address me as ‘Brain’ rather than ‘Brian’ in all documents) and state "… should you wish to change solicitors your file will be transferred only on receipt of a valid solicitor's undertaking to pay our costs and upon payment by you prior to transfer of any disbursements". I realise that these people are purporting to represent me, and as I haven't been involved in a RTA before I know nothing of this accident management company, and how these people believe they act for me when I haven't appointed them. Can you please advise?
Yesterday, I received a bundle of letters and blank forms from the solicitors. One letter states that "Your file has been passed to our claims dept. For the initial work we have done on your behalf we have paid an admin fee. This is a one-off and will be met by us in full...". In another letter entitled "Client Care", they list their charges at £220/hour (even though they address me as ‘Brain’ rather than ‘Brian’ in all documents) and state "… should you wish to change solicitors your file will be transferred only on receipt of a valid solicitor's undertaking to pay our costs and upon payment by you prior to transfer of any disbursements". I realise that these people are purporting to represent me, and as I haven't been involved in a RTA before I know nothing of this accident management company, and how these people believe they act for me when I haven't appointed them. Can you please advise?
Asked on 2 October 2010 by BB, via email
Answered by
Honest John
Have nothing whatsoever to do with them. This looks like a breach of CUE and both the Data Protection and Claims Regulator regulations. All such cases should be reported to the claims regulators: www.www.cueuk.org; www.ico.gov.uk; www.claimsregulation.gov.uk. Deal only with your insurer.
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