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Comprehensive car insurance and a personal injury compensation claim
The first car I ever owned was an ancient, gold coloured Opal Kadett. Nel was her name (due to her number plate), and I loved her. But she was worth no more than a few hundred pounds and I only had third party fire and theft insurance cover on her. It never occurred to me, in my infancy of experience, that I wouldn't be covered for personal injury compensation if a car accident happened. Oh, the foolhardiness of youth.
When she finally departed this world to cough and splutter her way into Opal heaven, I was pretty devastated.
Many years later and with a burgeoning young family in tow, I possessed a car that required fully comprehensive cover. It was a white Rover Metro and I was terribly proud of it.
Then one November, my family and I were out having a lovely time shopping for Christmas decorations when a woman, driving far too fast for the busy Littlehampton road, smashed into the back of us as we were indicating and waiting patiently to turn left into a side road.
I was shocked. It was quite an impact. My husband was in the driving seat and he calmly got out of the car and took the woman's details. I scrambled into the back seat to check on my 18 month-old-daughter who had thankfully been asleep and relaxed. She was completely unfazed by the crash (it may have been something to do with a top notch child safety seat and her six year old brother who had already shown her what impact was) and whilst I broke down in tears, everything was sorted and we drove gingerly home.
As we made the obligatory phone calls to the insurers and began to worry about the state of the car, I developed a splitting headache. The insurance company told us that a solicitor would be in touch. We said to each other, "Solicitor?" It sounded expensive. "No," they said, "Your comprehensive cover includes legal representation." Phew!
Further on into the darkest hours of the night, I couldn't sleep because my shoulders were hurting and the headache was still pounding in my skull with the ferocity of a jack-hammer. My husband complained of a severe ache down his spine and excruciating pain in his neck.
The car was a right off and so were several days of our lives as we dealt with the effects of whiplash injury.
And within a day or two we were introduced to an extremely personable young woman who talked us through exactly what we should do and what would happen during our personal injury compensation claim. We wouldn't have to do much at all in fact, just visit the doctor regarding our symptoms and she would do the rest.
It took several weeks for our whiplash injuries to be better. A new car was purchased with the insurance payout and we waited to hear about the personal injury claim.
Meanwhile, as we got on with our lives, we were given the opportunity to move out of our two bedroom, match-box of a flat into a house with a proper kitchen and gardens for the children to play in. Although delighted at the prospect of living with fences and gates and grass to cut, we were a more than a little worried about the costs of moving.
Then our lovely lady solicitor called and told us the woman driver's insurance company had settled and we would be getting fairly decent sized cheques. We couldn't believe it.
So, ten days before we were due to move we went to the offices of the firm who had dealt with our case, picked up our compensation cheques and off we trundled to Carpet World. With new flooring, new curtains, a new sofa, new fridge, freezer and microwave; and not to mention the swishest removal van I have ever seen, we were able to move without the financial headache that usually accompanies you wherever you go when your bank account is stretched to the limit.
Thanks to a careless driver and a lovely lady personal injury solicitor, we had a nice little financial cushion that made moving a pleasure and not a hair pulling chore.
So, I say, "Thanks," to comprehensive car insurance with legal cover and, "Thanks," to personal injury solicitors. And a cursory, "Ta," to the woman who was thinking about a dog show whilst she was driving around Littlehampton on a Thursday afternoon.
I still live in the three bedroom house and each year as the car insurer informs me that my cover will include free legal representation in case of a personal injury compensation claim, I say, "Phew".
