Car insurers have been accused of pressuring accident victims into settling claims before they have had the chance to seek advice.

It has been claimed that some may even turn up at a person's home within hours of a crash.

In a report by the BBC, accident victim Kimberly Harrison told her story. She had to have her face rebuilt after a car crashed head on into hers. How she was treated by the driver's insurers made things even worse.

Kimberly Harrison: "From the day I got home from hospital the insurance company phoned me up and were pressurising me not to take it any further, not to seek legal advice and I was really quite shocked at that."

The insurer was Quinn Direct. Kimberley said they even impersonated her lawyers to get her medical reports. I spoke to a former Quinn claims handler who says he doorstepped people within hours of their accident.

Tommy: "My full job was to capture those clients, stop them going through, you know, getting medical or independent legal advice on their injuries and try and settle direct in their living room. For me to do that and if I was successful in doing that I would hit my bonuses."

Quinn says it's investigating the medical reports claim. It denies Tommy's account and says its pro-active approach is based on fair compensation.

Lawyers say that car insurers trying to capture third parties is widespread and that most household names now have departments dedicated to it. The practices vary, but the Motor Accident Solicitors Society says that insurers shouldn't be contacting claimants before they have had advice and that payouts may be a lot less than they should be. So what does the insurance industry say?

ABI: "Insurers sometimes get in touch with the injured person and actually hold up their hands and say we know our customer injured you and we want to help you get the care and compensation you deserve as quickly as possible and that is the right thing for insurers to be doing rather than requiring claimants to drag them through the courts."

The regulation says insurers don't have to treat third parties like their own customers, but a leading road accident charity wants things to change.

Essentially you have someone who is a victim of a road crash and then they are made into a double victim because in addition to suffering injury and loss ther are then having to cope with often quite aggressive tactics by insurers.

Kimberley is trying to settle her claim through her solicitor. Meanwhile a City watchdog is looking into these practices.