Dealing with an exaggerated insurance cliam against me

[boyle4]

Had a small bump in country lanes in a work van and a bmw. The lanes were wet and I skidded and clipped someones mirror, no damage to my mirror but the bmws was scuffed and a tiny chip to it. Exchanged details and we went on our way. Now shes claiming about scratches all down the side of her car and claims she has pictures to prove it although my van has zero damage from the bump. Being a white van and a black bmw its would be very noticeable of any damage on my van.
Because of this my company is struggling to insure me on the vans and I'm now out of work whilst this goes on. Head office will be dealing with this but unsure if they will be backing me up, is there any legal advice I can seek for this or am I solely relying on the pictures of my van?
I'm new to this company so I want to make a good impression by dealing with this myself and not causing issues for head office.
I didn't take pictures at the time of the accident like a tard as the driver of the bmw was unsure if she was even going to claim for the mirror and traffic was building up in both directions so we both went on our way.
I will be great full of any advice on dealing with exaggerated claims

[FBS_Doc]

get your insurance to get a independent expert to take a look at the damage of the bmw

[boyle4]

The insurance is all dealt with by the company, the more hassle involved for head office the more likely they will just payout for all the damage and I loose my job. We are currently waiting on the pictures of the bmw so for now I'm just trying to cover my ass and expose the bmw driver's exaggerated claim. Would this come under insurance fraud? Or just some other insurance loop hole that people get away with?

[sn:afu]

Really you need to wait and see the pictures before doing anything.

At the end of the day the incident is your fault so the insurance company will be paying out, it's just a question of how much.

[eight-six]

If your insurance company / employer are not complete retards, and if there is no witnesses, and you haven't admitted liability, or put it in writing then they should just tell her to go and fuck herself. 50/50 claim - you each fix your own cars. As your van doesn't have any damage then no expense incurred by your business and no insurance claim against the company policy.

The woman's greed will then leave her with a broken wing mirror and a bill to pay if she claims or not!

[gaz_moose]

its kind of what eight six says but if your companys insurance have been notified of an accident it will go on the record but your company will be asked what the final costs were when renewal time comes. you want to get some good pictures of your van and wait to see what her images are like. then as been suggested an accident compatability test will be carried out to see if the proposed damage matches.

[Ruishy1]

Had something similar happen to a family member couple years ago, an expert came out and took samples from the scratches.
analysed them and found the cunt was lying as the paint etc didnt match chemically.

Tell them you dont accept it and they have to go down that route to prove/disprove

[brennon]

My girlfriend went into the back of someone not that long ago, impact speed was probably 20mph, she had a 306 and she hit one of these small jap 4x4 things. Although she did a fair bit of damage to her car from the tow bar of the 4x4 the only damage to theirs was she knocked the cover off the spare wheel mounted on the back. Few days later they agreed to let her pay for the damage as it was easier not going via insurance but just as we are sorting it all out they suddenly decide that they have taken the car to be checked over by a specialist and they are deciding to claim on insurance because the driver has suddenly got wiplash and the impact broke the clutch and the turbo!!!!! Some people just see the chance to try and get something for nothing!!!

[smokey]

Always, always ALWAYS take pictures, your car, their car, as they stand, where it happened. This will always save you a lot of hassle. I caught a cars mirror with the back of my lorry once. I hadn't been driving it long, and it was a 21 pallet lorry, so the arse was hanging far out over the rear axle. Anyway, I took a few pics, that showed the damage, the cars reg nr and then the guy came, and I apologized and explained what happened. We exchanged details, and I called my boss to say what had happened. My boss phoned the guy and said he'd pay it, and told him to meet him at a workshop of his choice and convenience. They met up, and the guys car was totally fucked. My boss called me and asked what the hell I'd done, so I hung up and sent the pics I took. The guy was then politely told to fuck him self, and nothing more was heard about it. When I was taking the pics, I was holding up two lanes in a city center, but I couldn't care less. ALWAYS take pics.

[docwra]

Since when does insurance get cancelled after an incident ......... thats what its there for isnt it??

[boyle4]

I didn't admit liability as her argument was I was in the middle of the road... pretty hard not to be on a country lane, there were no witnesses so it will be down to the pictures of each car. I will go into work tommorrow and take extensive photos of the van as it stands and then clean it and take the same pictures again. Will that be enough to disprove her claim or will I need a compatibility test done by the insurers?

Brennon was there no legal action you could take against a very obvious fake insurance claim? To me this is obvious fraud that people get away with.

I'm pissed off at myself for not taking photos, I couldn't of cared less about the traffic it was just her screaming baby in the back that made me want to get it over n done with as quick as possible. The fact she said she didn't even know if she was going to claim for the mirror, her only worry was that she was going to sell the car soon, makes me think shes gone home and her husbands thought right we can fill our boots here.

I work for a parcel delivery company so our insurance is already sky high, for each driver its £5000 a year and rising each renewal so a claim like this one would make my uninsurable for the company.

[jap-si]

some wankshaft fucked me over like this. country lane, no witnesses, i managed to stop my car in on a bank, he drove all the way down the side of it steaming down the road.

went to insurance he said it wasn't his fault. so did i. got nowhere. as long as she claims about you, you carry on claiming against her until she drops it.

in this case photos don't mean shit. no witnesses. anything could have happened.