The value of your car is under say £800, the repairs would be £???

If the 3rd party would pay out cash for repairs / write off them I would deal

rather than involve insurers. Although officially you should tell them about any scrape.

I 58 years driving I have scraped my car / had people scrape it and just asked the 3rd party to pay.

My fault I pay out of my own pocket if the costs were less than my Excess (£500 nowadays)

My son was manouvering into a parallel parking spot and when stationary he says another car driving along same road hit him

Yeah, right. What does the other driver say

Great

My son was manouvering into a parallel parking spot and when stationary he says another car driving along same road hit him on passenger door which won't now open.

Now that this thread has come back to life (thank you BPL for updating us, even though the outcome wasn't what you had hoped for) I find myself thinking again about the event itself.

I was puzzled to read that the driver was performing a parallel parking manoeuvre and that whilst stationary his car was struck on the passenger door. I realise that this may have been the rear door on the driver's side, but if it was a nearside passenger door I cannot quite picture how this incident occurred - assuming that the driver wasn't attempting to park on the right-hand side of the road facing oncoming traffic, which is of course contrary to Para 239 of the Highway Code. I'm sure we've all done it, but a young driver will have presumably boned up on the Highway Code before taking his test, would parking against oncoming traffic mean that an insurance company would be less likely to fight the case?

Update

No win no fee Accident Management Company will no longer represent him as no chance of success. 3rd party car is a Mobility scheme one so no loss of NCD and free legal rep apparently. Mobility car owners have to report all accidents and claim through insurance so no hope of a cash setlement. Moral of the story, don't get hit by a Mobility car. It was a relative of the owner driving as well. Also advise not discussing the claim with insurance company before submitting a carefully thought out written claim or using an accident management company.