After Car Write-off - Auxillis Car Hire Costs Court Claim- ** RESOLVED - two insurers' solicitors settled out of court. no liability for me.**

[SuperVillain]

So have they started court proceedings, and if so have you seen a copy? 

 

The terms of your agreement with Auxillis will state that you have to cooperate with their nominated lawyers (Principia) and will inevitably reserve a right to pursue you for hire charges if you don’t cooperate. 
 

Principia will plough on regardless and I suggest that you don’t voluntarily keep yourself in the dark as to what they’re up to and what they’re saying on your behalf (if they have issued proceedings it will be in your name and you will be the Claimant in the case!).

 

The last thing you want is to suddenly find you’re being asked to sign a witness statement

- likely full of incorrect information

-  with a court hearing scheduled 3 weeks down the line. 
 

Now as to the question of the disputed timeline, you are absolutely correct not to sign anything that is incorrect/false.

Presumably you have this CCTV which shows the correct date?

I would send a copy to Principia (or at least a few stills from it) which shows them collecting the car on the date you said. 

 

As DX said the court will be your local court.

They need your availability information to put on the Directions Questionnaire.

I would take this opportunity to tell them your nearest / preferred court. 

[SuperVillain]

Ok let’s all calm down here.

 

A Defendant filing a defence is entirely expected (if they don’t they’ll end up with a CCJ for the whole amount of the claim).

 

The next step is that the Court will ask for directions questionnaires to be filed. Once that is done, the claim will be transferred to your local court who will set directions. 
 

Given the lockdown the Courts are prioritising higher value cases so your hearing date could well be early next year. Plenty of time for the case to settle before anyone has to go to Court (and yes they’re right when they say these cases rarely get to Court).

 

Are Principia still maintaining that the hire charges are longer than they were, and have you sent them any proof that the car was collected earlier than they say?  The quicker that issue is sorted the closer the case gets towards settling.

[SuperVillain]

Yea I see what you mean. 
 

As for dropping Co-Op, I don’t see the point. Pretty much every insurer will refer you to credit hire in such a situation, and even if they don’t, their garages or engineers will.

 

As for producing your footage at Court, if the implication is to ambush your own lawyers I don’t think you should be looking to work against Principia. As you have flagged up the discrepancy to them already, they will have issues with getting you to sign a witness statement before you even think about setting foot inside a Court.  If you don’t have your own CCTV immediately don’t worry about it.
 

I would write to Principia (and I stress write to them and send a copy by post and email), and set out your concerns in writing about the amount of hire being claimed.  

 

Tell them that you’re concerned that a statement of truth (ie the signature bit at the end of the Particulars of Claim) has been signed  (presumably by Principia?) and claims for hire after the car was returned, despite you telling them about the discrepancy. Refer them to the conversations that you’ve had with them about this already.  

 

Tell them that you are locating your own CCTV footage to show when the car was collected, and also that you have concerns that you work at the same place as the defendant and they will know how long you really had the hire car.  Cards on the table and that will make them sweat a bit. You can post a draft here and I’ll take a look if you want. 
 

Like I said it’s important that you start taking control of the situation, and now is the ideal time to do this, while the situation is quiet in terms of Court proceedings.

[SuperVillain]

Hi,

 

Ok, have you responded to that email? If so please can you post up your response? 
 

If not, then they claim to have tracker data? Presumably we’re saying that the tracker data is incorrect? We need to see it (not sure what format this data will be in but there may be clues in there which support you). Also, do you have any proof as to when you got your own car back from repairs e.g. an invoice for your excess or a something you signed at the garage etc.

 

I understand that you have gone through this with them repeatedly but if you leave it be they’ll assume you accept the 20 day hire period and the claim will continue in your name.  This will be a problem when say 10 months down the line they want you to sign a witness statement saying you had the car for 20 days.  You’ll say no, because it’s not true, they’ll say they didn’t hear from you for ages and you’re now being uncooperative (leaving them open to chase you for any charges they don’t recover). 

 

So, I would still write to them again. Unfortunately you’ll have to keep at them. 
 

I think you should set out in writing that:

 

1. The car was delivered on xx/xx/xxxx and taken back on xx/xx/xxxx, and you therefore don’t accept the hire period as stated on the particulars of claim.

 

2. You want to see the tracker data which alleges you were using the car past the date you say they took it back. 
 

3. That you are currently reviewing your own CCTV for confirmation as to when the car was collected and will send them a copy as soon as you have it. 
 

4. You are concerned that a statement of truth has been signed without your authority when you have told them the dates are incorrect (assuming you did not reply to their email). 

5. You are concerned that you were using your own repaired vehicle on the later days that hire has been claimed and the Defendant, who you work with, is likely to produce witness evidence to support that.

 

6. You will not sign any witness statement that contains information which is not true (they can sign a particulars of claim on your behalf but they can’t sign a witness statement for you).

 

Number 4 will cause them slight concern now.

Number 6 will cause them significant issues later down the line, if they continue to ignore you. (So at the very least it’ll give them a kick up the backside to try and settle quicker before they get to witness statement stage).

Edited April 21, 2020 by SuperVillain

[SuperVillain]

My mistake I thought you were asking for advice about your claim.