Am I Legally Obliged to Pass Legal Papers onto My Insurer?

L[Deactivated] on 17/03/2016 - 20:30
Last edited 17/03/2016 - 20:37

Long story short. I had an accident late last year and I gave my insurance information to the other driver. As I have comprehensive insurance with Budget Direct I thought my insurer would take care of the claim without issue. Today I received a call from my insurer telling that they are disputing the amount the other insurer is claiming and that the other insurer will post some legal papers to me. It looks like the other insurer is suing my insurer for some extra cash. My insurer asked me to pass the papers onto them. My question is: Am I under legal obligations to pass the papers onto my insurer? Please correct me if I'm wrong, I think the other insurer should send the papers direct to my insurer without getting me involved as my car is fully insured. What do you think I should do in this case?

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Comments

  • BigTed on 17/03/2016 - 20:52
    +15

    If you want your insurance company to deal with the claim - yes, you should pass on the papers.
    If you are happy to pay for it yourself - no problem. Keep them.
    Am I the only one who thinks this is a strange question?

    • fruit on 17/03/2016 - 21:31

      I think they want to know why one insurer won't just send the document to the other.
      Oh no.. they also want to know what to do: Send the peppers. https://vimeo.com/26186981

      • amkssg on 17/03/2016 - 23:47

        It looks like the other insurer is suing my insurer for some extra cash.

        Nope. You got it wrong. The insurance company is suing the OP, and not the other insurance company.
        That is why the letter is going to him, and not the insurance company.

  • Banana on 17/03/2016 - 21:32

    Don't know the answer to your question but what are the odds that I know someone who called Xiang with the last name Tan?! Did you recently have a baby?

    • tomsco on 17/03/2016 - 22:55
      +1

      Why yes I did, thank you.

  • boonanza on 17/03/2016 - 22:07

    Who was at fault you or the other Driver?

  • ozhunter on 17/03/2016 - 22:11
    +1

    Sounds like you're making a big fuss over nothing. Either tell the other driver to post it himself or just put it in an envelope and post it.

  • Ridiculous Panda on 17/03/2016 - 22:36

    It is not a strange question at all. I think they are rying to avoid that expensive postage rate that Auspost charge nowadays. I don't blame them.

    • amkssg on 17/03/2016 - 23:44

      Nope. You and the OP got it wrong. The other insurance company is suing the OP (xiangtan) for money. They are not suing his insurance company. Which is why the letter is going to him, and not the insurance company.

  • amkssg on 17/03/2016 - 23:42
    +3

    It looks like the other insurer is suing my insurer for some extra cash.

    Nope, you got it wrong. The other insurer is NOT suing your insurer. The other insurer is suing YOU for the money.

    How it works is:
    1) You got into an accident and you now need to pay for damages to the other vehicle.
    2) You (and NOT your insurance company) now owe the other driver XX dollars for the repair.
    3) However, you had bought insurance to protect yourself from insane liability, and therefore the insurance company pays out compensation on your behalf. Case closed.
    4) However, in your case, your insurance company refuses to pay his insurance company the full amount that YOU (and NOT your insurance company) owes.

    So, guess who is getting sued?

    TL;DR, you are getting sued. And your insurance company wants you to send in the paper work so that they can fight the case for you.

    • amkssg on 17/03/2016 - 23:54

      I will try to explain the concept using "Health/Travel Insurance" instead of "Car Insurance", as it is easier to understand.

      Let's say you bought travel/health insurance.
      You flew overseas, got into an accident and was hospitalised.
      (So, you now owe a hospital bill.)
      You send your hospital bill to your insurer.
      Your insurer refuses to pay.
      Guess who the hospital is going to sue? You or your insurer?
      Answer: You! Because you, and not the insurer, owes them money.

      Same case here. You got into an accident. You owe the other driver money. You tell your insurer to pay off the amount. Your insurer refuses. You still owe the other guy. It's YOUR debt.

      • bobbified on 18/03/2016 - 00:17

        Agreed with the concept!

        Except the OP's insurer can't refuse to indemnify him (unless the OP has breached the contract or some sort of condition hasn't been met, which isn't either for this case).

        If the other insurance company sues, Budget Direct should be covering OP - either they pay up the other party's claim amount or they will represent and act on the OP's behalf in Court.
        And if OP loses in court, Budget Direct will have to pay the other party.

        (This does not include any costs the OP might be sued for for anything that's not covered by his insurance policy).

        • amkssg on 18/03/2016 - 01:38
          +1

          The OP is asking: "Am I under legal obligations to pass the papers onto my insurer?"
          My response is simply to outline (as above) that he is under no obligation to send it on to his insurer.
          However, not sending it to the insurer is incredibly silly since the 3rd Party insurer is suing him, and not the other insurer. (It was also to clear the OP's misconception on who is actually being sued.)

          While the OP's insurer can't indemnify him, I am sure that the OP's choice of not forwarding them the papers has consequences.

        • bobbified on 18/03/2016 - 09:35

          @bsmksg:

          You got into an accident. You owe the other driver money. You tell your insurer to pay off the amount. Your insurer refuses. You still owe the other guy. It's YOUR debt.

          I was actually referring to the bit where you said "your insurer refuses". But not to worry - it looks like we're getting at the same thing.

          To be honest, I'm not even sure why OP is asking the question or why he would not want to pass on the papers.
          It's normal procedure to pass on legal docs such as the Letter of Demand to the insurer who will then handle the claim - otherwise the insurer wouldn't have all the information to represent the OP.

          The details of any court action will be in the OP's name.

          Sometimes there's news articles where the headline and article sounds like someone is "suing" their own brother/sister or whatever who was the driver of a vehicle in an accident that they were injured in - but they're not actually suing someone in their own family - they're suing the insurance company of the person. Although the court case is in the individual names of the victim and the driver, any compensation ordered is paid by the insurer at the time.

  • Baysew on 18/03/2016 - 07:31

    Am I under legal obligations to pass the papers onto my insurer?

    No probably not.

    If the your insurance company had not advised you to send the papers to them, the first thing you would do is forward them on.

  • Randxyz123 on 18/03/2016 - 11:59

    Yes. When the letter arrives put it directly back in the post addressed to your insurer or better still scan it.

    Your insurer will represent you in court but the papers will be posted to you.

    Just forward them on that's all you need to do

  • billy3000 on 18/03/2016 - 20:05

    I had some thugs come to my door to serve me with some papers after an accident with a taxi.. I rang my insurer (aami) and they said not to worry about it, they recieved the same papers. Your insurer should fix this completely.. That being said I would never insure with BD..

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