Accident caused by uninsured driver - who pays excess?

The same applies, I see, to the word ‘barstering’. Forty years ago the son of friends of mine knew that he was not allowed to use the word ‘bastard’. He came up with the word ‘barstering’. His parents allowed this word because he had apparently invented it. I had never heard it before, either. Nor since

However, like ‘complexify’, it has emerged, from time to time, as the natural result of people playing around with the language.

The example I have seen of ‘barstering’ occurs in a sentence of uttermost profanity, to do with the number of times the speaker has tripped over a rug. It includes use of the present participle of the noun used ‘accidently’ by John Humphries to introduce a Tory MP called Hunt.

Shaw had a phrase for this sort of demotic, which he had Prof Higgins apply to Alfred Doolittle - “native woodnotes wild”. Wonderful phrase.

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A wonderful moment that I was fortunate enough to hear live on Radio 4 but I think it was James Naughtie…

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Yr right

And it seems that Naughtie wasn’t the only one: https://youtu.be/pr2rZPc7-M8

Amazing! So many …

Germaine Greer tried to ‘rehabilitate’ the word but gave up. It was simply irredeemable.

Ugly harsh word - completely inappropriate IMO.

Fabien, are you able to explain to me the French process following our collision with the uninsured driver? We had a rdv with the gendarmes and gave a statement 5 days after the accident. We collected our repaired car from the garage on Tuesday and had to pay the excess before they would release the car to us. The Insurance company have said we will get our excess back, but no idea when. The gendarmes are now in possession of the report detailing repairs and costs. I have asked our Insurance Company to explain the process to me, but they have been incredibly slow and not very proactive. So who does what now? Do the Insurance Company request the reimbursement of the excess from the uninsured driver or do the Police have to prosecute before funds are returned? Will this be done in a month, year or longer? This is our first accident in France so have no idea what the process is or how long it takes, so any helpful guidance would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

Hi Coralie,

This is an unpleasant experience. Your insurer or broker may be able to help but if he is not then you can have a look here Accident de la circulation causé par un véhicule immatriculé ou non immatriculable (trottinette électrique,...) en France - Fonds de Garantie des Victimes

That’s usually the insurance company who does that (your insurance company). Although if they don’t or if it doesn’t seem like it’s going somewhere then this is the landing page for filing up a claim with the FGAO. Hope that helps?

Kind regards,

Thank you Fabien. I have looked at this site previously and know about the fund, but wasnt sure if we were eligible. In your experience, do you know if claims like this take a long time before they are settled? So months rather than weeks?

Unfortunately it depends on “who did what”. That’s normally your insurance company who should be dealing with this so they alone can answer you as each company will operate differently (and I’m not your insurer so I can’t tell). If you did file the claim yourself directly with the FGAO then it’s a bit different but that’s a legal process so it also depends on how responsive are the other parties involved.

It’s safe to assume months in a case like that. If I may, it’s a very very rare situation you are getting yourself into so I would expect some bumps down the road unfortunately as many of the people you’ll be dealing with probably never dealt with that kind of situation before.

Brace yourself and good luck in advance,

Thank you for the advice. Appreciate it.