car 'incident' - going through court.

Amleto

Amleto

Amleto

Soldato
Joined
13 Feb 2003
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Anyone here been in this position? After refusing to admint that I've done anything wrong in my incident my insurance company has started legal proceedings.

However, there are no independant witnesses, just the third party's admission that I was going 5mph throughout the whole affair.

Funnily, in his defence particulars I was driving too fast for the conditions and suddenly and without warning changed direction.

Anyway, does any of this matter as there are no other witnesses? Am I just on a hiding to nothing?
 
I'm going to bite on this one.

I refuse to believe that there isn't a whole lot more lol about this story.

Full details, we stand a chance of helping.... "'Incident' when I was doing 5mph, im going to court" ... we stand no chance of helping as the knowledge that you were in the process of snorting a line of charlie off a 10k a pop hooker at the time in 4 ft of snow with bald tyres is rather useful
 
Conanius said:
I'm going to bite on this one.

I refuse to believe that there isn't a whole lot more lol about this story.

Full details, we stand a chance of helping.... "'Incident' when I was doing 5mph, im going to court" ... we stand no chance of helping as the knowledge that you were in the process of snorting a line of charlie off a 10k a pop hooker at the time in 4 ft of snow with bald tyres is rather useful
Click to expand...

lol wtf. I'm asking if anyone has experience of cases with no independant witnesses.
 
Amleto said:
Anyone here been in this position? After refusing to admint that I've done anything wrong in my incident my insurance company has started legal proceedings.

However, there are no independant witnesses, just the third party's admission that I was going 5mph throughout the whole affair.

Funnily, in his defence particulars I was driving too fast for the conditions and suddenly and without warning changed direction.

Anyway, does any of this matter as there are no other witnesses? Am I just on a hiding to nothing?
Click to expand...

Simple answer - notwithstanding the above comments - is that if your insurance company are happy going to court they must believe they have a chance of winning.

I was involved in a no witness accident some years ago (well no witnesses that would come forward) I was advised not to take it court but the other guy did and I won. The judge will make a decision on whatever info is available.

Andi.
 
Amleto said:
lol wtf. I'm asking if anyone has experience of cases with no independant witnesses.
Click to expand...

I do, my parents.. and it was laughable..

My Dad joined a very busy roundabout which had stationary traffic on it, so he was just sat behind another car mid roundabout, then bang! another car hits his rear/offside..

He gets out, and the other driver seems really sheepish, but they exchange details and my dad sorts it out through insurance. at the time everyone drove off and he didn't even think about witnesses, but it was so obvious who was at fault (other guy admitted it, my Dad was stationary (My Mum was there too!))..

Fast forward to letter through the post saying he's been taken to court by other guys insurance company for the full damages..

Goes to court, and the first thing is, they call the driver up as the first witness, except it's not the same bloke, it's a much older bloke, and he turns around and says that my Mum wasn't actually at the scene, and he'd never seen her before (She wrote the details down when they exchanged them with presumably his son as it transpires)..
They accuse my dad of being old (well duh!) and that he somehow went into the side of him, and presented a diagram that didn't even match the angle of damage.
And amazingly, this guy won.. Of course it cost my Dad nothing, it was all insurance companies footing the bill, but it really affected him..

The reason for all this was because the insurance company assigned who I assume is the cheapest YTS solicitor around, they did zero prep work, just turned up 10 minutes before, didn't want to even discuss the case with my dad, told him these things are 50/50 most of the time, and due to zero preperation, didn't even challenge even the most basic/obvious errors in the offence..

My advice, if it's your insurance company claiming against the other driver, then it'll be a farce anyway, just go along and don't take it personally, there are many stories like my parents around, but being the accuser, you would probably hope they've made up some case against them, if they send in their token solicitor who hasn't read the case until they arrive that day, you'll probably be fine
 
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udpate:

I was due in to court next week, but just got a letter from solicitor saying:

"I have now settled this claim... We will be confirming the receipt of the settlement ..."

So that is at least partial good news, although it isn't clear if it's a total win for me. If it isn't, I'm very surprised that the solicitor could settle without giving me any choice.

Even if it isn't good enough to affect my premiums, at least it's a bit of extra spending money :)
 
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