Armstrongs Solicitors/McAms - I'm being fucked about.

[_Iain_]

Having greif with the solicitors & accident managment firm.

Situation

Crashed just over six months ago. SMIDSY, car pulled straight across the front of me & admitted liability around a week later. Snapped/dislocated arm which got plated, damage to knee & neck. Had to argue lots to get paid for the bike, then McAms had Armstrong pay out. Armstrongs were dealing with the damage to gear & personal injury.

Problem

I was promised an interim ASAP, this still hasn't happened. It's now winter & I've got no cash left for buying winter gear as I spent it all replacing the summer gear destroyed in the crash. Not especially happy about this. They also claim I need a second medical that's due at 6 months after the crash, this is now overdue. I've been promised callbacks from Armstrong at least 6 times now & got nowhere, and called McAms 3 times again getting nowhere. My claims handler is never there & was on holiday last time I called up, and apparently is having a day off today.


It also cost me a helluva lot running the hire car (small auto's drink fuel), plus parking and days off etc to go to the hospital, general shit like that which I bunged on a credit card at the time (was expecting an interim by now) however I'm struggling a bit as a direct result of this.

They say;

The 3rd party basicly ignored everything Armstrongs sent to them till they were threatened with court action, at which point they decided to do something about it. However they've said the same thing to a mate, my other half and a workmate who all have claims going through them at the moment so I call bullshit on that.

Have e-mailed complaints dept at McAms and Armstrongs & had no reply. Obviously phoning them isn't going to work so now what? Is there anything I can do to extract some money from the solicitors?
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Please be aware that the above post may be full of complete nonsense.
Riding: '07 KTM Duke II, Baotian BT49QT-20 Driving: '88 Volvo 340

[Ste]

Ewwwwwwwwww @ accident management company.

Get rid of them and get a proper firm of solicitors to handle your case.

Has liability been admitted by the third parties insurers?

[Nash GT]

get real solicitors involved
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Suzuki GSF600N

[_Iain_]

[Ste]

Whenever there's a mention of a hire car or bike after an accident there's always lots said about making sure that you wouldn't be liable for any of the hire cost.

You say they couldn't be any worse than your insurance company, but it's nothing to do with your insurance company.

In short, if you change solicitors (guessing you're on a CFA) then the bill for your current claims management company would be paid (or taken on) by whoever you change to. Your best way to find all of this out in full would be to speak with some solicitors about changing to them. There's loads on Google about this so do some reading up on it.

The bike has been paid out for, any ideas why that didn't include the money for your kit?

[_Iain_]

[blueglue]

I had a claim take three years once as the other party who was driving a company car denied it being their fault.

In a nut shell I was driving straight over a roundabout to stay on the same road and she drove into my n/s/r quarter trying to drive through me to get on the motorway. The only way i could have been to blame was if i was reversing around the roundabout.

Frustrated the hell out of me me and was a poor show from the AA and whichever mickey mouse legal team the passed it onto.

I remember sitting in the pub three years later getting a call asking if i gave permission for bailiffs to seize the other drivers work computers. Funnily enough they paid that day....twats!

[_Iain_]

Hillarious.

Post on internet forum and I have a callback with answers within a few hours. I then get a call from my file handler explaining everything in detail and confirming that they're chasing for an interim payment today.

Will still not be reccomending either firm to anyone again, but looks like I'll be seeing a surgeon in December to assess my injuries & then we'll be talking figures with 3rd party.

Legit as fuck.
____________________
Please be aware that the above post may be full of complete nonsense.
Riding: '07 KTM Duke II, Baotian BT49QT-20 Driving: '88 Volvo 340

[Iain.]

Update.

Spoken to Armstrongs today. They still havent arranged the surgeon to have a look at it, they still haven't sorted out the claim for the kit. There won't be an interim payment any time soon either as the 3rd party still hasn't agreed the valuation of it.

Apparently they now want to know where I bought the bike gear and how much for. I told them I have no idea because it's been nearly a year since the crash, however that it was all bought at full RRP.

The surgeon needs to provide a CV, which is then sent to the 3rd party insurer, who then have to okay it before we get anywhere. They've not managed to do this in two months now.

[Rogerborg]

Sounds like there's a ready market for accident management management and claims handler handlers.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[kernow24]

[Slow perrr]

Now then,

One of the reasons that the insurers are slow to deal with your claim (even when the other driver was at fault and liability has been admitted) is because of the rates that DAMS charge.

There's an agreement between the ABI (association of british insurers) and the CHO (credit hire organisations) known as the GTA which give what are deemed reasonable rates to provide replacement vehicles on credit.

The GTA gives a rate of say £68.56 for a 600cc and a flat charge of £35 for a top box. https://apps.abi.org.uk/tphire/

DAMS will try and recover almost double that and a daily rate for a top box and so on.

As such when presented with a grossly excessive bill the defendants will spend plenty of time and effort fighting it.

Of course this means that your claim may not settle as soon as it otherwise might.

OHH and be very careful that you do not end up with a personal liability for the costs of the bike that were not recovered as these are technically your liability.

[Rogerborg]

Thanks for that, interesting stuff.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike