Insurance reports
Back in February, I was in a car accident in Edinburgh. I wasn't hurt but my (relatively inexpensive) car was written off. I had to phone up the insurance company to explain that it hadn't been my fault, and give an account of what actually happened. All through the process (during which I was on hold for half an hour at a time in three different departments) it became plain that the employees had been told that rather than referring to other cars involved as "The Audi" or "The Toyota", they had to refer to them as "Third Parties".

I shouldn't have done it, but I had just been in a nasty car crash and I had no money and no patience left. My final account of the accident was roughly:

"I pulled onto the roundabout in conjunction with a third party on the left and a second third party between myself (the first party) and the first third party. The first third party pulled sharply out of the left-turn-only lane into the path of the second third party who, upon seeing the first third party was forced to swerve into myself (the first party). The first third party drove off leaving the second third party and myself as the first party in bits on the roundabout".


This may have contributed to the reason it took them so long to pay out, but it did mean that I got to keep my very nice courtesy car for nearly three months.
( MatJ LOOK, Sat 19 Jun 2010, 11:37, Reply)