Hey folks, need some advice.

Hubby had a motorcycle accident last November.

Was hospitalised and had surgery. 5 months off work with only SSP.

We got through that.

We had a witness and the police prosecuted the driver for driving without due care and attention.

That went to court in June last year.

Hubby had 12m review with surgeon yesterday and has to have further surgery in 3 weeks, meaning more time off work.

Our solicitor is telling us that the other parties insures have not responded to their push for admission of liability.

Court proceedings were allegedly served in September this year as they hadn't admitted or denied liability and we still have no response.

We have asked about an interim payment, but have had nothing

. We have been told we cannot get one unless the other side admit liability.

We cannot afford for him to have further time off work as he only gets SSP!

Is this right? Surely if the driver has been prosecuted it's pretty cut and dried and the driver's insurance company should have at least responded??

Thanks:|

Who are the insurers?

Who are the insurers?

The other drivers insurers are Admiral

With a successful prosecution for driving without due care & attention, your tack to take is that (bearing in mind the Civil Evidence Act), liability should not be an issue, only quantum of damages (if they are claiming, for example, that there has been contributory negligence).

Assuming that that this is a multi-track case (interim payments won't happen in the Small Claims track, and are rare in the fast track), your insurers / solicitors should be putting this to the defendant's solicitors, asking for an interim payment, noting that if they don't offer an interim payment, you'll be asking the court to order one under CPR 25(7)(1)

Your solicitors will likely be looking at Practice Direction 25B, in particular Paragraphs 2.1 and 2.2.

With a successful prosecution for driving without due care & attention, your tack to take is that (bearing in mind the Civil Evidence Act), liability should not be an issue, only quantum of damages (if they are claiming, for example, that there has been contributory negligence).

 

Assuming that that this is a multi-track case (interim payments won't happen in the Small Claims track, and are rare in the fast track), your insurers / solicitors should be putting this to the defendant's solicitors, asking for an interim payment, noting that if they don't offer an interim payment, you'll be asking the court to order one under CPR 25(7)(1)

 

Your solicitors will likely be looking at Practice Direction 25B, in particular Paragraphs 2.1 and 2.2.

Thank you for your response. The problem is Admiral are not even responding at all. Our solicitor said they issued court proceedings in September and still have not heard anything from them. They haven't said anything at all. It's like they are completely ignoring it and hoping it will go away!

Thank you for your response. The problem is Admiral are not even responding at all. Our solicitor said they issued court proceedings in September and still have not heard anything from them. They haven't said anything at all. It's like they are completely ignoring it and hoping it will go away!

Admiral not responding 'doesn't matter', in so far as if they haven't responded to the request (or anything else, even!), your solicitors make the application, (with a 'return date' of at least 14 days....).

Admiral can then respond or not, but that won't stop the court making an order for an interim payment. That order would be enforceable (and from the sum likely to be involved) enforceable as a judgment order by HCEO's if Admiral were unwise enough to continue to ignore the process......

So we need to be nagging the solicitor to get it sorted?

Well, an approach (that would avoiding appearing to be nagging) would be to ask them

Is there:

A) Any reason to delay making an application for an interim payment, (given that finances are now getting difficult), and

B) Anything more they would need from you before making such an application?.

Thank you so much for your advice