Please understand that all of AFCA’s considerable costs to deal with your complaint will be paid by the insurance company. So to be fair, AFCA expects you to first give the insurance company every opportunity to resolve the dispute before they get involved. This means that all vital information should be provided to the insurance company. If you hold something back, but then provide everything to AFCA, they will first send all of your information onto the insurer and give them sufficient time to reconsider their position and maybe change their minds and pay you without AFCA having to be involved any further. If however the insurance company still maintains that you are at fault, then AFCA will deal with it.
As far as AFCA is concerned the dispute is between you and the insurance company so if the outcome is in your favour, AFCA will not make any ruling, penalty or directive in respect to the other driver. It will be up to the insurance company to decide what, if any, action they take against her. You wont be informed.
The worst that could possibly happen to her is that the insurance company decides that her actions amounted to fraud and they could then reject the whole claim - her repair costs and yours. If that happens you will have to take her to court to get anything as AFCA can't help you. However in a disputed accident, where either she has pulled out from a side street in front of you or you have run into the rear of her car, I think it is difficult to prove fraud and not just differing perceptions of what has occurred. Of course you are in a far better position than me to have an opinion about this. Just saying that from my experience in these situations a claim denial due to fraud almost never happens.
Also note that AFCA can only make an award in respect to your vehicle damage repair costs. If you have other costs such as car hire, you will need to chase up the insurance company for these once AFCA have issued a determination in your favour. In other words the insurance company cannot get away with restricting payment just to your repair costs - because the determination will be about who is at fault in the accident, and the insurance company is bound by AFCA's decision.
Good luck with this and please let us know the outcome.
As far as AFCA is concerned the dispute is between you and the insurance company so if the outcome is in your favour, AFCA will not make any ruling, penalty or directive in respect to the other driver. It will be up to the insurance company to decide what, if any, action they take against her. You wont be informed.
The worst that could possibly happen to her is that the insurance company decides that her actions amounted to fraud and they could then reject the whole claim - her repair costs and yours. If that happens you will have to take her to court to get anything as AFCA can't help you. However in a disputed accident, where either she has pulled out from a side street in front of you or you have run into the rear of her car, I think it is difficult to prove fraud and not just differing perceptions of what has occurred. Of course you are in a far better position than me to have an opinion about this. Just saying that from my experience in these situations a claim denial due to fraud almost never happens.
Also note that AFCA can only make an award in respect to your vehicle damage repair costs. If you have other costs such as car hire, you will need to chase up the insurance company for these once AFCA have issued a determination in your favour. In other words the insurance company cannot get away with restricting payment just to your repair costs - because the determination will be about who is at fault in the accident, and the insurance company is bound by AFCA's decision.
Good luck with this and please let us know the outcome.
