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I didnt know which forum to post this in, but a lot of the posts on here seem to bee reguarding car's and insurance.

 

I have today received papers from a local county court asking for 3k in fees for a car accident i wasnt involved in. Also in this pack, I recieved was a doctors summary of the persons injuries in the car crash, and a written statement of how these injuries occured. I was apparently driving a ford fiesta, when i crashed the car into another at a roundabout, my passenger is the person claiming.

 

The person in question, I have never met or known of, the car is something i never owned, the reg number is not a number of any vehicle i have owned. I have witnesses that i was elsewhere at the time of the alleged incident.

 

Now the twist, I originally rec paper work in regards this claim from the solicitors, camps, in July. I spoke to someone in the office who confirmed that this was an admin error, but unfortunatly have no record of whom i spoke to and what time.

How could this now be tranlated into a county court letter and a signed decleration of truth. I am at a loss , where sould i turn, the police, speak to solicitors again?

any help would be greatfully appreciaited.

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I didnt know which forum to post this in, but a lot of the posts on here seem to bee reguarding car's and insurance.

 

I have today received papers from a local county court asking for 3k in fees for a car accident i wasnt involved in. Also in this pack, I recieved was a doctors summary of the persons injuries in the car crash, and a written statement of how these injuries occured. I was apparently driving a ford fiesta, when i crashed the car into another at a roundabout, my passenger is the person claiming.

 

The person in question, I have never met or known of, the car is something i never owned, the reg number is not a number of any vehicle i have owned. I have witnesses that i was elsewhere at the time of the alleged incident.

 

Now the twist, I originally rec paper work in regards this claim from the solicitors, camps, in July. I spoke to someone in the office who confirmed that this was an admin error, but unfortunatly have no record of whom i spoke to and what time.

How could this now be tranlated into a county court letter and a signed decleration of truth. I am at a loss , where sould i turn, the police, speak to solicitors again?

any help would be greatfully appreciaited.

 

Hi MrHelp and welcome to the forum. It sounds like you have come to the right place from what you have said :)

 

Anyone can lodge a court claim against anyone else for any reason and just because they have it does not mean that they will get a penny.

 

As to how this could have happened, the Sol's client could be swearing blind it was you or it was an admin error. Either way, as they have involved the County Court you need to follow the relevant procedures re. acknowledgement and defence timelines or they can get a default judgement against you. Service is taken to be five days after issue and the court needs to receive your acknowledgement of service on or before the 14th day from service. You then have a further 14 days to file a defence.

 

You say that you have witnesses that you were elsewhere on the day in question, would they be prepared to write a witness statement for you? Do you have any further evidence of being elsewhere, e.g. receipts or bank statements showing spending somewhere else?

 

 

As to who to turn to, the Police won't want to get involved as it is a civil matter and as you have already spoken to the Sol the best bet is to use the Court correctly. From what you have said you were not responsible, and have proof to show that you weren't, and as such this should be very easy to see off if done correctly.

 

Can you post up a scan/typeup of the POC and the original solicitor's letter with personal details removed? that way we can give more accurate advice :)

 

 

 

What I would do is acknowledge the claim ASAP and then send a suitable letter to the Sols pointing out that you were not the person and inviting them to withdraw the claim, paying your costs of course. HOWEVER - do not do this yet, post up the documents I have asked for and give me and the others a chance to read and comment.

 

 

At the end of the day, don't worry. CAG is here to help people just like you.

 

Thanks,

H

 

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Thank you, I will post the documents up as soon as I can. Thanks again.

Not a problem. Just remeber, don't worry about it - there are lots of people here who can help :)

 

Don't forget to answer those questions I asked as well ;)

 

Ta,

H

 

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Hello, firstly my witness, is prepared to sumbit a written statement and go to court if necessary. I spent the evening at home, the accident took place between 6 and 7pm.

Any way the first letter i received reads....

 

we act for mr ....... who was invovled in a road traffic accident with you on the above date.

ourclient has suffered loss and damage in the accident and holds you legally responsible because you attempted a right hand turn manouver across the path of a vehicle in which our client was travelling when it was not safe to do so.

our client has suffered personal injuries as a result of the accident which we in understand are soft tissue damage to the neck.

our client has not so far had any treatment in any nhs hospital as a result of the accident

on the information presently available we donot believe that there will be a loss of earnings claim in this case

a copy of the letter is enclosed so that you can send it on to your insurance company who will need to see this letter as soon as possible and it may effect your insurance cover and/or the conduct of any subsequent proceedings if you not send this letter to them. At this stage we are not aware of any potential defendant.

 

Under the personal injuries protocol you and your insurers are obliged to reply to letter within 21 days, yours sincerely. camps

 

thats the initial letter, after some digging through my files i remembered that i was responsible for an accident in june the prior year and again the sols involved where camps. I am no being to believe that the claiment was in an accident with a person as the same name as me but he had no address for them. Camps have then added my address.... but any way i contacted my insurers after the letter, obviously they had heard nothing, since i was never invovled in the accident. I phoned camps and after some delay they responded to me stating it was possably an admin error. I will post from the poc shortly

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Particulars of Claim

 

1. at all material times the claimant was a passenger in ford fiesta motor vehicle, registration number .........., being driven at the time by the defendant

2. on the 2nd day of january 2010 the claimant was turning right in the ford fiesta motor vehicle he was driving at a traffic light controlled junction on rainford road but whilst doing so turned right across the path of an oncoming vehicle, thereby causing a collision with the same.

3. the sais accident was caused by the negligence of the defendant.

 

i dont know if im reading this wrong but at one minute it states that the defendant is a passenger, then states he was driving????

obvioulsy it was me in the car with him, never owned any type of ford vehicle, dont know the chap, never had a car witht the same reg ... so on and so on...

 

it continues.

 

in section b of the doctors report history it states the following.

 

on the 2nd january 2010 at 6pm to 7pm, he states that he was a passenger, siiting in the front seat, with his seatbelt fastened, his head restraint present, of a car being driven by a friend, Mr.Help, when whilst slowly mobile, turning right at a junction at a traffic island they wew involved in a collision with an approaching car that struck their rear nearside. Their vehicle was damaged and written off, no airbags deployed, the impact moderate in intensity and as a result he sustained the following injury. ....................

 

???im stuck , any extra help would be super. thank you in advance.

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The first thing you should be doing before considering any defence is passing this onto your insurance, this is what you pay them for. Even if you've changed companies since the date this is allegedthey will still deal for you. If you havn't told them already and they ask why not, just tell the truth, you thought this was an error on the solictors behalf, There is a possiblity they know about this already.

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I suppose if you never owned the vehicle or were not driving at the time of the accident, your Insurers of the car you had at the time won't be interested. If this is the case and Camp have made a mistake, you should acknowledge service of the court claim and indicate you will be defending in full. Write by recorded delivery pointing out that the particulars of claim are wrong, saying why they are wrong asking for an explanation. Send by recorded delivery. Be aware of the date you need to submit your defence information to the court, which I think is 28 days from the date the court claim was issued.

 

If you were involved in this accident and the particulars of claim are just wrong, send the court claim form to your Insurers with a covering letter.

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... i dont know if im reading this wrong but at one minute it states that the defendant is a passenger, then states he was driving????

obvioulsy it was me in the car with him, never owned any type of ford vehicle, dont know the chap, never had a car witht the same reg ... so on and so on...

...

 

???im stuck , any extra help would be super. thank you in advance.

Ok, just to make sure we are clear here - were you involved in an accident at all on the 2nd of January 2010? How was the claim in June sorted out?

 

Those POCs are very confusing and contradictory - which is just better for you. they are an exact type up (obv. excluding typos) of the claim form?

 

 

Be aware of the date you need to submit your defence information to the court, which I think is 28 days from the date the court claim was issued.

 

If you were involved in this accident and the particulars of claim are just wrong, send the court claim form to your Insurers with a covering letter.

Just to clarify, the deadline is 33 days from issue which is 28 days from service.

 

MrHelp, what is the issue date on your claim form?

 

I agree Unclebulgaria's comment re. passing it to your ins co if you were involved in an accident.

 

 

what relation is this witness to you? and did you do anything from home that would leave a "paper" trail? e.g. make any phone calls or buy anything online?

 

Sorry for all of the questions - we just need to know everything so that we can help you :)

 

Thanks,

H

Edited by heliosfa

 

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Hello and thanks again for all your help.

 

The service date is the 25th of january, i have not been involved at all in an accident on the 2nd january and have witnesses, my wife, that I was at home that evening as she was heavily pregnant and ill at the time (she keeps a good diary, i can account for all our movements that day, including dinner with the inlaws a restaurant in the afternoon, where my inlaws actually picked us up in their vehicle to go). I have never owned a ford fiesta or a car with the same reg number. Im currenly looking for any receipts at that time, to see if i have any futher defence.

The POC is word for word apart from typo's. I am considering typing a letter to the sol's involved and hand delivering it myself tomorrow, i am pretty sure this must be an admin error, either that or the claimant is being disengeneous.

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Hello and thanks again for all your help.

 

The service date is the 25th of january, i have not been involved at all in an accident on the 2nd january and have witnesses, my wife, that I was at home that evening as she was heavily pregnant and ill at the time (she keeps a good diary, i can account for all our movements that day, including dinner with the inlaws a restaurant in the afternoon, where my inlaws actually picked us up in their vehicle to go). I have never owned a ford fiesta or a car with the same reg number. Im currenly looking for any receipts at that time, to see if i have any futher defence.

The POC is word for word apart from typo's. I am considering typing a letter to the sol's involved and hand delivering it myself tomorrow, i am pretty sure this must be an admin error, either that or the claimant is being disengeneous.

 

I agree that you need to contact the sol's but hold off for the moment - they have involved the courts and a letter just to the sols will not solve this you HAVE to follow court procedures.

 

Let me have a few minutes to have a think and I'll post up a "plan of attack" and get in a Mod to see what they think.

 

The issue with your wife as the witnes is that she could be taken to be "biased" towards you. I know it is for the claimant to prove their case but the more ammo you have to disprove it, the better.

 

Thanks,

H

 

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Ok, so, I think that the first thing to do is to acknowledge service with your intention to defend.

 

Secondly, I think a letter to the Sols pointing out that they have got the wrong person and inviting them to discontinue, covering your reasonable costs. Something like the following would probably be appropriate:

 

*****Your Address*****

January 25th, 2011

*****Their Address*****

RE: Claim Number: *****Claim No.*****

To Whomever it May Concern,

 

I have recently received the above numbered claim from XXXXXX County Court relating to injuries that a ***insert injured party’s name***** sustained during a car accident on the 2nd of January 2011 which you allege I was responsible for.

 

As I advised your office by telephone on the XXXX of July 2010 I am not the person responsible. I have never met the Claimant and at the time in question I was not driving the vehicle in question or even any other vehicle.

 

Given the above, I have replied to the Court indicating my intention to defend. As it appears that you are chasing the wrong person, I invite you to discontinue the claim and as per Part 38.6 of the Civil Procedure Rules, I expect you to be liable for my costs in this matter.

 

I reserve the right to apply for Summary Judgement against you should you not discontinue the claim.

 

Regards,

 

MrHelp

 

 

Do keep track of the number of hours your spend dealing with this claim, including research time.

 

Let me just ask one of the Site Team to have a quick look over the thread and give an oppinion before you do the above though :)

 

Thnaks,

H

 

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Looks like you've been getting good advice mrhelp.

 

What you have to remember is it up to the claimant to prove that they have a case against you, and from what you've said they clearly haven't. I would tweak the suggested letter as follows.

 

January 25th, 2011*****Their Address*****

 

 

RE: Claim Number: *****Claim No.*****

 

To Whomever it May Concern,

 

I have recently received the above numbered claim from XXXXXX county courtlink3.gif relating to injuries that a ***insert injured party’s name***** sustained during a car accident on the 2nd of January 2011 which you allege I was responsible for.

 

As I advised your office by telephone on the XXXX of July 2010 I am not the person responsible. I have never met the Claimant and at the time in question I was not driving the vehicle in question or even any other vehicle. In fact I have never driven the vehicle in question.

 

Given the above, I have replied to the Court indicating my intention to defend. As it appears that you are chasing the wrong person, I invite you to discontinue the claim and as per Part 38.6 of the Civil Procedure Rules, I expect you to be liable for my costs in this matter.

 

I reserve the right to apply for Summary Judgement against you should you not discontinue as I don't believe that you have any real prospect of success.

 

Regards,

 

MrHelp

 

If you're going to claim costs, keep a note of them, preferably on a spreadsheet and keep receipts to attach as evidence.

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Advice & opinions given by Caro are personal, are not endorsed by Consumer Action Group or Bank Action Group, and are offered informally, without prejudice & without liability. Your decisions and actions are your own, and should you be in any doubt, you are advised to seek the opinion of a qualified professional.

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Thanks for popping in Caro and making the changes to the letter :)

 

MrHelp, i'd say you can go ahead and post that letter to the solicitors tommorow by 1st Class recorded.

 

You should also complete the Acknowledgement of Service that you received with the claim indicating that you intend to defend the whole amount and return it to the Court tomorrow (in person if you can or by 1st Class Recorded / Special Delivery otherwise).

 

Can I also suggest that you ask the court what they think the deadline for your defence is, either in person when you go in or by phoning them, and post the date here?

 

Keep the receipts for both and wait for a reply from the Solicitors. Obviously post up any reply you get to this thread and we can take it from there :)

 

Thanks,

H

 

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Thank you again. I tried to speak to sol this morngin when i hand delivered the letter. She was not in the office today. I tried to intiailly explain that i though it was an admin error, and if could speak to someone in regards to this. They declined, I suguested that if not an administration error then there could be foul play. IT was then sugguested that I should legal represtation, even though the lady I was stated that she had never seen the actual case file.

I have then been to the local police station where the accident took place. they stated no recorded accidents took place that day.

I have spoken to a local sol's who sugguest to represent my self as she feels is an admin error. she would take the case but at the cost of 190 p/h.

I havent returned any defence or acknowledgement's as of yet as am awaiting responce from another local sol's re legal aid ( i was made redundant in december). To be honest I also very wary about representing myself, i know i shoundnt, i have witness and from the outside looks to be an open and closed case.

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Thank you again. I tried to speak to sol this morngin when i hand delivered the letter. She was not in the office today. I tried to intiailly explain that i though it was an admin error, and if could speak to someone in regards to this. They declined, I suguested that if not an administration error then there could be foul play. IT was then sugguested that I should legal represtation, even though the lady I was stated that she had never seen the actual case file.

I have then been to the local police station where the accident took place. they stated no recorded accidents took place that day.

I have spoken to a local sol's who sugguest to represent my self as she feels is an admin error. she would take the case but at the cost of 190 p/h.

I havent returned any defence or acknowledgement's as of yet as am awaiting responce from another local sol's re legal aid ( i was made redundant in december). To be honest I also very wary about representing myself, i know i shoundnt, i have witness and from the outside looks to be an open and closed case.

 

Ideally the letter to the Sol should have been delivered by recorded delivery as you then have some evidence it was sent. Do try to avoid speaking to them as they are likely to try and spook you - which they seem to have done.

 

How much are they claiming?

 

I understand your aprehension about doing this yourself Mr. Help, however the point of "small Claims" is that you can bring and defend a claim easily as a litigant in person. The limit for small claims is £5000 and there is a "no costs" rule in that you can't reclaim your legal costs if you win.

 

The reason I sugested acknowledging your claim ASAP is that if they withdraw after you acknowledge, it is even harder for them to re-issue again at a later date. You are also entitled to some costs to cover the time you have spent on this but it wouldn't cover a solicitor's time mot likely.

 

From what you have said, this looks like a very straightforward case and it may even be possible to win without needing to appear in court by using a request for summary judgement at the right time. Remeber, there are alot of people on CAG who can help you, some of them are even legal professionals.

 

The other thing that people from here do is have "court buddies" so that you have someone you "know" with you. they can't speak for you but they can give you moral support. Where in the Country are you?

 

RE.Legal aid, i am afraid that it is unlikely to be available for a civil "debt" given the way they have changed it recently. If you really want representation, you may find that your home insurance has legal cover included and, as this is a very open and shut case, they might take it on.

 

Thanks,

H

 

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Hi, there are a few things that need to be ironed out for me.

 

1. have you had dealing with this firm of solicitors in the past? and what happened in this case if you did.

If you have had the same solicitors it maybe a conflict of intrest and another escuse to not act for the other party, they can get around it by getting another solicitor firm to help them,

 

2. as someone else has said your witness's wont be credible as you know them

 

Sometimes solicitors do make mistakes on dates. I thought they did it on purpose.

 

If you tell your insurance company they will defend you, that is what insurance is for.

Also when you cantact your insurance, ask them if anyone has made a claim against you. If for example a claim was made by the driver from the other car (dont think it is likly because you say you never owned it so assumed never had it on your insurance).

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thanks again for the help.

 

phoned up the courts today as heard nothing since sending my defence in, they have told me that it will go to mitigation???? and are sending a questionaire out? i assume then the sols havent withdrawn the case and are still blindly following.

 

in answer to the above question, yes the claimant is using a firm in which I was admitted liability on an accident in 2008, I think there has been an error on there part, but alas nothing from them.

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I think it might be mediation rather than mitigation?

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Should you be offered help that requires payment please report it to site team.

Advice & opinions given by Caro are personal, are not endorsed by Consumer Action Group or Bank Action Group, and are offered informally, without prejudice & without liability. Your decisions and actions are your own, and should you be in any doubt, you are advised to seek the opinion of a qualified professional.

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Unless you file some evidence to show that the Claimant is mistaken the Court is not going to take any notice of your Defence until the trial. If someone could just defend a case by saying it wasn't me, your mistaken, in their defence then every case would have such a pleaed defence.

 

Once a Claimant has confirmed an accident has taken place, and they can probably do this by contemporaneous medical records etc, then it falls onto the Defendant to disprove the allegations.

 

What will have happened is that the Judge will have looked at the Claimant's pleaded case and then your Defence. The judge can't just strike it out of the Court's own accord unless they have good reason to do so. As such, he will have asked the clerk to send out Allocation Questionnaire's to the parties. In these questionnaires you need to again state your case that the claim is misguided, however, without any evidence the Court, at this juncture are not going to take too much notice.

 

As such, you need to make an application to strike out the Claimant's claim.

 

However, what you must remember is that this claim will fall into the fast or multi-track and as such, if you lose (and its easy to lose if your claim gets kicked out for failing to comply with an order etc) you will be liable for the Claimant's full costs i.e. between £3k to £10k and the damages awarded and disbursements and so you really need legal help.

 

Check to see if you have legal expenses insurance on your car, home, contents, credit car insurance policies that will cover this action against you. If so, they will instruct solicitors to go and represent you.

 

if you don't then I would approach a bigger firm of solicitors and ask them if they will take the case on a no win no fee CFA. As you clearly have good evidence to support your denial and you can show this to them when in your initial interview they may well take it on, and win or lose, you don't pay anything.

 

If you can't get either, then you need to make an application and/or other measures.

 

Firstly, find out who owns the car the Claimant says you had an accident in. You can use this form to request such information:-

 

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@motor/documents/digitalasset/dg_065303.pdf

 

You can then provide this information to the Court and cl sols to show you don't own the vehicle.

 

You can at the same time find out who insures the car by using this website:

 

http://www.askmid.com/askmidenquiry.aspx

 

It costs a couple of quid but worth it. Once you have this information then send the Claim form and pleadings to them confirming that if they don't confirm they will deal with this claim on your behalf and/or contact their insured then you will bring them and their insured as a Part 20 defendant. Might work.

 

The you need to get witness evidence from your wife, dogs cats etc, the more the merrier, to confirm you were not driving on said day, don't know the Claimant etc. Also, exhibit the diary entry to your wife's statement and that is good contemporanoues evidence that will sway the Court.

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  • 4 weeks later...

hello again, have sent in the allocation questionaire with the askmid database that confirms i was not the insurer of the vehicle, also my reg doc for the vehicle that i own. did that 2 weeks ago., sent copies of everything to the sols and the court

today the claimants questionnaire arrives not requesting any mitigation.

also recieved the reply from the dvla v888 which states i have never owned the vehicle, i have sent this to the sols and the court today.

should i know start getting statements from witnessess, as i prv asked the court if this was necessary at this stage and they said no.

again any advice would be appreciated.

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I'd be inclined to write to the solicitors and invite them to discontinue the claim now they've seen your evidence.

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Should you be offered help that requires payment please report it to site team.

Advice & opinions given by Caro are personal, are not endorsed by Consumer Action Group or Bank Action Group, and are offered informally, without prejudice & without liability. Your decisions and actions are your own, and should you be in any doubt, you are advised to seek the opinion of a qualified professional.

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As Caro has suggested, write to the solicitors and tell them to discontinue and in the meantime, just wait to see what the Court does. If the Court hands down directions which means the claim against you continues then you need to get witness evidence and then make an application to strike out the claim. The Court may well order a case management conference to discuss the claim and warn the Claimant's that they should discontinue etc and also listen to what you have to say.

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