Acquaintance injured by rider of illegal 'e-bike'.

[BoldonLad]

You can doubt as much as you like, but I know a case where the insurance guy pushed for that until he was asked to explain it to the injured guy who they had got to come to the office to meet him. Changed his tune when that happened. Its all a game.
Why should a blameless person get anything less than 100%. Unless of course it pays someone's bonus ?

I agree. But, if the options are 75% or 0%, then, personally I would rather have the 75%, you of course are free to make your own choices.

 

[icowden]

You can doubt as much as you like, but I know a case where the insurance guy pushed for that until he was asked to explain it to the injured guy who they had got to come to the office to meet him. Changed his tune when that happened. Its all a game.
Why should a blameless person get anything less than 100%. Unless of course it pays someone's bonus ?

Because there is no such thing as 100%.

In personal injury claims the claim is in two parts; part 1 - the injury and part 2 - loss and damages.

Part 1 - the injury is usually reasonably easy to settle, and the figures are usually based on past claims. For example you can expect around £15k for losing your index finger, a bit less for middle or ring and bit more for both ring and little finger etc. That's the easy bit.

Then you get to part 2. Now that you have lost your index finger, how should you be compensated? Can you still work, if not then the claim must cover the salary you expected to get for a reasonable amount of time to allow you to retrain for a job where you don't need your index finger. Then there is the time off work while you recovered, the cost of all the take away food because you couldn't cook, the taxis because you couldn't drive etc etc etc.

This figure goes back and forth. Your solicitor will ask for bank statements and receipts - as much evidence as they can get, and then ask for a sum of money. Say £50,000. The insurance company will come back and say "We'll offer £10,000".

This is where it gets interesting. You can choose to push back, and keep this exchange going. If, however the insurance company won't budge, you then have the option to have your day in court where a Judge will decide based on the evidence provided, what reasonably compensation should be. If the Judge decides that the insurance company were unreasonable he might order compensation for £30k. If however he decides that your solicitor has over egged the pudding he might decide that you only get £5k. So you are down on what you would have got.

BUT

Because you pressed to go to Court, you also get to pay for all of the costs of that. And the Insurance company solicitors will pad their costs as much as possible, just as yours would have done had you won.

A further complication is in the way that you engaged your solicitor. If you are not loaded enough to pay for your solicitor or poor enough that you manage to get Legal Aid, many solicitors will offer a "No win, No fee" arrangement. They take on the risk that they might not win the liability part of the case, but in return you give them an agreed percentage of your compensation...

So now, out of your £20k "win" you end up paying £5k of it to the insurance company for their legal fees plus £2k as a success fee to your solicitor and you walk away with £13000 when you could have had £20k if you had settled*.

*my maths may be wrong here - but you get the idea

 

[Gillstay]

Because there is no such thing as 100%.

In personal injury claims the claim is in two parts; part 1 - the injury and part 2 - loss and damages.

Part 1 - the injury is usually reasonably easy to settle, and the figures are usually based on past claims. For example you can expect around £15k for losing your index finger, a bit less for middle or ring and bit more for both ring and little finger etc. That's the easy bit.

Then you get to part 2. Now that you have lost your index finger, how should you be compensated? Can you still work, if not then the claim must cover the salary you expected to get for a reasonable amount of time to allow you to retrain for a job where you don't need your index finger. Then there is the time off work while you recovered, the cost of all the take away food because you couldn't cook, the taxis because you couldn't drive etc etc etc.

This figure goes back and forth. Your solicitor will ask for bank statements and receipts - as much evidence as they can get, and then ask for a sum of money. Say £50,000. The insurance company will come back and say "We'll offer £10,000".

This is where it gets interesting. You can choose to push back, and keep this exchange going. If, however the insurance company won't budge, you then have the option to have your day in court where a Judge will decide based on the evidence provided, what reasonably compensation should be. If the Judge decides that the insurance company were unreasonable he might order compensation for £30k. If however he decides that your solicitor has over egged the pudding he might decide that you only get £5k. So you are down on what you would have got.

BUT

Because you pressed to go to Court, you also get to pay for all of the costs of that. And the Insurance company solicitors will pad their costs as much as possible, just as yours would have done had you won.

A further complication is in the way that you engaged your solicitor. If you are not loaded enough to pay for your solicitor or poor enough that you manage to get Legal Aid, many solicitors will offer a "No win, No fee" arrangement. They take on the risk that they might not win the liability part of the case, but in return you give them an agreed percentage of your compensation...

So now, out of your £20k "win" you end up paying £5k of it to the insurance company for their legal fees plus £2k as a success fee to your solicitor and you walk away with £13000 when you could have had £20k if you had settled*.

*my maths may be wrong here - but you get the idea

You decide your total claim is worth 100k. Your solicitor tells the insurance company and they say `no we will only pay 80k. You say `bog off I want 100k or we go to court. They fold the week before and you get 100k. Or 100% of your claim.

 

[icowden]

You decide your total claim is worth 100k. Your solicitor tells the insurance company and they say `no we will only pay 80k. You say `bog off I want 100k or we go to court. They fold the week before and you get 100k. Or 100% of your claim.

I suppose it *could* happen...

 

[annedonnelly]

Is there an update @KnittyNorah? I hope the lady is ok and none of her injuries have got any worse.

 

[bonzobanana]

Nonsense or not, it's the way things are.

It doesn't matter why they're not measured in the same way as motorcycles or power drills. They simply are not. Once we've accepted that we can all move on with our lives, perhaps even to something relevant to the OP.

The point is people keep writing forum postings where they say this is 250W and this isn't but none of them are 250W typically. In fact often posters with the highest wattage ebikes claim other ebikes are dangerous and illegal due to high wattage when they actually own far higher wattage ebikes. It's just the farcical situation we are in because of EU legislation which was never honest or realistic from the beginning.

If you wrote washing machine certification like ebikes you would probably end up with washing machines rated as 30W as much of the time the washing machine is not on just waiting to be unloaded but still powered.

People use direct drive ebikes for gig economy riding because they are cheap, reliable, easy to control in traffic and can last a very long time on a battery charge and you fully control how the battery discharges either by more or less use of the throttle so you can make it last an 8 hour shift with light use of the throttle. They massively extend the life of the drivetrain because the hub motor works independently. It's the right tool for the job but this doesn't mean in anyway these riders are responsible in how they ride them or excuse them for disabling the 15.5mph assistance speed limit which many do.

 

[KnittyNorah]

Is there an update @KnittyNorah? I hope the lady is ok and none of her injuries have got any worse.

Thanks for asking I saw her on Sundsy and she is OK-ish, but 'not quite right yet' and probably has some degree of post-concussion syndrome; hard to tell how long it will last.
The accident report apparently states unlicensed uninsured, no EAPC evident, ridden at speed on footway, passer by in car who stopped and offered help/witness has full dashcam footage of the entire incident - himself driving at 23mph round junction/bend immediately before victim comes into view and bike rider is visible going faster on the pavement than the car on the road, then WHAM.

She has instructed a solicitor - one of the no-win, no-fee brigade, but a local firm with, AFAIK, a decent reputation - and when they saw the draft of the police accident report, they practically bit her hand off to take it on.