Car dooring and making a claim

[andy_spacey]

A week before Christmas I had a driver open there door on me on the left-hand side of the carriageway as I was commuting resulting in facial injuries scarring. I am going to make a claim against the driver.
I know it's going to take a long time but the 25mm scar on my eye eyebrow and 10mm scar on my cheekbone are never going to go away.
I am thinking of using wiggle legal so has anyone used them?

who has made a claim and won? and who did they use?

 

[night cycler]

Sorry to hear about the car door accident. I can imagine it must have shaken you up quite a bit.

I have no claim experience with this sort of thing, but am sure someone on here will advise accordingly.

Hope you are recovering well, and sorry to learn of the scarring.

 

[Pale Rider]

I reckon experience varies even with the same claims handler, so it's very difficult to advise on which to use.

Much of the smooth progress - or otherwise - of your claim will be down to responses from the other side.

So in that respect, it doesn't matter very much who you use.

 

[Mile195]

I made a claim for someone clipping my handlebar and sending me crashing to the ground a few years ago. They drifted into the cycle lane as they passed me, I think because he was arguing with his children in the back.
It was pretty open and shut, because there was limited damage to the bike, and only minor injuries. The claim was for about £1200 - probably not a figure worth arguing about to an insurance company. It was settled within a couple of months. If the driver admitted fault and you're not claiming very much, then like the previous poster says - doesn't really matter who you use that much I wouldn't have thought. They'll probably just pay up to make you go away.
However, if there's an argument about it, or your injuries are severe enough to take the figure up to more than a few thousand, then it may be different. I expect someone will be able to chime in with an experience about a bigger claim and what you can expect in those circumstances.

 

[vickster]

General advice https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/accident-advice.226114/

I'm going through a claim at the moment, knocked off 4 years ago, similar close pass, wing mirror caught my handlebar. I had some injuries to leg and shoulder requiring surgery and long recovery, hence it's taken so long (as well as the process being slow to get multiple medical reports etc)

In terms of who to use, find a legal firm with lots of experience with cycling accidents and check what proportion of any damages they might take. I'm using British Cycling legal team (Leigh Day) as I was a member at the time of the accident.

The driver admitted liability so it's not a question of winning but how much for me (I don't know what the court may decide or we may agree in advance of the court date which is v soon)

I think @ianrauk went through a dooring claim...against plod IIRC

This company look like they know what they're doing. They also give precedents for an expected level of damages. For facial scarring, suggests 2-3k

https://www.bottonline.co.uk/road-t...-much-compensation-claim-for-bicycle-accident

Good luck getting it sorted

 

[Drago]

I know a guy was shaving, one of the blades came loose and cut him. He was left with the faintest of faint scars - you need to know its there to actually see it - and he settled with the manufacturer for two gees.