Court claim for bump

[stanfranks]

A friend ran into the back of another car and according to them was a minor bump with no visible damage to either car.

Details were exchanged and my friend had heard nothing for 12 months.

A Court Claim has now arrived for £1000 as claim for damage to the other car.

He no longer has the car.

I know more details are needed ie POC, who is claim from.

I have told him he needs to acknowledge receipt of claim first and would I be right in saying also tick the 'dispute all' box.

What else is he required to do.

[sailor sam]

If the 'incident' happened 12 months ago, then I would of thought the defense would be that anything could have happened in that time so the claim is unreasonable. So yes, tick the 'dispute all' box.

Was the matter reported to your friend's insurers?

 

Please Note

 

 

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

 

 

I would always urge to seek professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

 

Please click my reputation button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[buzby]

Pass it to his insurers at the time.

[stanfranks]

Thanks.

I will tell him to respond disputing all.

At the time he did not inform his insurers as he thought there was no damage to the other car.

How should he defend and should he ask for repair details, estimates etc.

[buzby]

HE should still involve his insurers. It is often a mistake no keep them in the dark on the premise that it wasn;t your fault and you don;t wish to have a grey mark at your next renewal, but since you cannot trust thirsd parties, this is often a foolish move. Even at this stage he can still advise his insurers that a matter he thought was being settled has flared up, and he needs their assistance. As the issue is not a critical one, I still believe attempting to deal with it himself may ultimately work against him. He paid for his insurance, he might as well have their protection.

[stanfranks]

After much quizzing my friend has now said he did inform his insurers but did not respond to anything they sent.

Silly I know but he was too embarrased to tell me.

His insurance has now lapsed as he no longer has a car.

The incident by the way was May 2009.

I suppose this now changes things.

The POC claim for hire car charges and repair costs but no copy of invoices/repair estimates have been provided.

[sailor sam]

In that case he is probably on his own. The TP will have to demonstrate that his claim relates to the incident. The court will be interested to know why the TP has waited all this time in making a claim. Your friend could try contacting his insurers at the time and see if they will handle it but if he failed to respond accordingly to them, then they may now wash their hands of it.

 

Please Note

 

 

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

 

 

I would always urge to seek professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

 

Please click my reputation button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[stanfranks]

Just to make things clearer.

My friend accepts he bumped into the Claimants car which may have needed a repair.

He wishes only to dispute the amount claimed as no proof of the repair/hire costs have been provided.

[sailor sam]

Just to make things clearer.

My friend accepts he bumped into the Claimants car which may have needed a repair.

He wishes only to dispute the amount claimed as no proof of the repair/hire costs have been provided.

 

Yes, I understand all that. But it looks like he will have to go to court to do it because he didn't pass it to his insurers at the time. They would of fought this on his behalf had he of responded to them correctly.

 

Please Note

 

 

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

 

 

I would always urge to seek professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

 

Please click my reputation button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[buzby]

He MIGHT just get away with it. His insurers remain responsible, so providing he had a policy in force at the time of the incident there's every chance they'll take it on - he does NOT have to be a current customer of their for them to settle or look after him.

[sailor sam]

He MIGHT just get away with it. His insurers remain responsible, so providing he had a policy in force at the time of the incident there's every chance they'll take it on - he does NOT have to be a current customer of their for them to settle or look after him.

 

True, but it appears that he did report the incident to them but then did not respond to 'anything they sent'.

 

Please Note

 

 

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

 

 

I would always urge to seek professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

 

Please click my reputation button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful

[stanfranks]

Worth a try with the insurers.

But may well need to defend on his own.

Help is required with text of the defence; main points are the hire car costs and repair costs are split in the poc but no details provided of how the sums are calculated.

Should he have had copies of repair estimates before the Claimant proceeded with repair and should there need to be more than one estimate.

[buzby]

His reasons for not responding could be legion, but as they were notified in the first instance so his initial duty to do so was discharged. (on a separate note isn't your advert and begging bowl for reputation a bit OTT? It doubles the size of each post to no real effect.

[sailor sam]

His reasons for not responding could be legion, but as they were notified in the first instance so his initial duty to do so was discharged. (on a separate note isn't your advert and begging bowl for reputation a bit OTT? It doubles the size of each post to no real effect.

 

For your information it is my signature and was the same under the old format apart from changing from 'click my scales' to click my 'button'. A lot of caggers have similar signatures. If it makes you happy, I will try and make it smaller but as I said, it is the same font and size as before.

 

Please Note

 

 

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

I would always urge to seek professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

Please click my reputation button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[sailor sam]

Is that any better?

 

Please Note

 

 

 

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

I would always urge to seek professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

Please click my reputation button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[buzby]

Bless you. It just filled up so much screen real estate on my display it made weeking out the actual message to reply to quite difficult! Thge ols BB s/w had an opt out so I'll need to investigate what has hapened to this.

[stanfranks]

Now back to the main thread.

I understand not responding to letters from the insurers has not helped, he still needs to defend.

This on the basis of how have the hire and repair costs been calculated may be a start.

[mightymouse_69]

The claimant's conduct seems a bit unreasonable. The CPR's state that where possible, parties should exchange information and attempt to come to an agreement before turning to the courts.

 

Is there any chance that your friend has missed any correspondence from the claimant?

[stanfranks]

It is possible but he says not - only received letters from insurers which he did not respond to.

The POC do not mention any correspondence or attempts to come to an agreement.

His concern is they have not backed up the claim with any documents to confirm costs on car hire and repair.

[buzby]

There is mo automatic right to car hire. Additionally, a claimant is required to keep their costs reasonable, and at the very least this would not be for more than a few days at the most. If it is being bumped up to make the costs increase, that is fraudulent and needs to be rejected. Also, he should have been provided with estimates and a breakdown. If all he received was a POC this should also be challenged.

[stanfranks]

Thanks buzby.

The defence will challenge the costs stated in the POC.

I confirm no estimates or breakdown of costs have been received either prior or with the claim.

Is the a template that can be used or can you suggest appropriate wording of the defence.

Also to recap the incident was May 2009.

[buzby]

Others might be better placed than me on this one, as there may be Englisg court defended that I'm unaware of. However as a guide, a simple rejection of the claim against you and in the way it has been dumped on you without disclosure of the costs will be enough to put them on the back foot.

[stanfranks]

Thanks buzby.

Can anyone help with the defence statement.

[stanfranks]

Anyone able to help with a defence statement.

There is time as I believe defence needs to be submitted Fri 27 Aug.

I am on holiday next few days so hopefully we can move forward when I return.

[T.C.]

On damage only claims, the statute of limitation (the period in which a claim can be made) is 5 years, unlike personal injury where the statute of limitation is 3 years from date of injury or date of knowledge whichever is the soonest.

 

The key to this claim bearing in mind that insurers are dealing with more and more fraudulent claims, is to ascertain whether the other side submitted an estimate for the damage shortly after the crash or at least within a reasonable period of time. If it has taken a year for the third party to submit an estimate, then there is certainly something fishy and would certainly flag up concerns or issues.

 

Under civil law, we work on the balance of probability unlike criminal law where it is beyond reasonable doubt, and if it has taken a year for an estimate to be produced, then the question has to be "Is this genuine" and the longer the gap between the crash occuring and the claim paperwork being submitted, the more suspicious I would be that is for sure.

 

Speak to the insurers and provide as much information as possible, but also flag up the possibility of a fraudulent claim. Insurers have their own in house investigators, and they can ve instructed to look deeper.