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My brother-in-law knocked down a pedestrian and was unfairly classified as 'Driver error'. Can this be altered?
My brother-in-law knocked down a pedestrian. He kept his insurance company informed (LV) and had to make a claim to rectify the damage on his car. The police investigated and classified the accident as "Pedestrian Error". Consequently, my brother-in-law was not prosecuted. He contacted LV but was told the accident would still be classified as "Driver Error". When he challenged them, he was told that this was standard practice by LV, and the car insurance sector, because they could not recover the costs from the pedestrian. This seems wrong on two grounds. Firstly, LV could pursue a claim against the pedestrian; they just choose not to do so. Secondly, LV is storing incorrect information about my brother-in-law on their system. I assume he could demand that the information is corrected under the terms of the Data Protection Act. But is this (mal) practice widespread? If so, there would also appear to be an industry-wide abuse of the Data Protection Act.
Asked on 16 March 2013 by PB, Wisbech
Answered by
Honest John
May seem wrong, but that's the way it is. He made a claim that could not be recovered against anyone else. So he gets penalised. If he wants to, he can sue the pedestrian for his losses using www.moneyclaim.gov.uk. The insurer won't because it takes too much time and time is money.
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