Car pile up on A road, car written off, TPFT only

[The Phantom]

Had a response from the lady in front of me in the post today.

She actually sent me a letter back. But not much help, she says all she can honestly say is that she stopped and then felt a 'bump' in the back when I went into her car. 

 

From her perspective it would of course be difficult to say with certainty whether I was pushed or not, considering she wasn't looking in that direction at the time of impact

 

Also could I just as whether the next step would be a notice of allocation from court with further directions and at that point asking me to pay the hearing fee ? (I think it's £170 at present)

 

They haven't so far asked for more money, so assume that will be next ?

 

Had a look at the case on Money Claims online, but there is not much information. It only seems to show me what the other party has done, not what I have done.

It for example doesn't confirm receipt of my Allocation Questionnaire, but it does confirm receipt of hers ?

Is that how it is supposed to be ? You can only see what the other party has done but not what you yourself have done ?

 

Bit puzzled now, hope they received my AQ form, but I did send it recorded and it was signed for.....

[The Phantom]

Quick update.

 

I haven't heard anything from court yet, still assume the notice of allocation should be next together with a request for me to pay £170 hearing fee, but that's just my guess

 

Trying to give me a heart attack, my insurance Halifax sent me a letter on Saturday, saying the claim from December 2019 has now been settled in full and recorded as me being at fault.

But my insurance premiums would not change. And that was about it.

 

When I called them they said I should call the underwriters for further information, which in this case is LV.

Got hold of LV claims today and they said the case has not been settled and is ongoing as it is disputed. They said they have no idea where Halifax got the information from that it was settled. They haven't made any payment yet and the matter is ongoing.

 

So phoned Halifax back and spoke to someone else. They then told me the wording of their letter was wrong and it should have said it was settled with me NOT being at fault hence no change to my insurance premiums. I told them that was also not quite right, as the underwriters say the case is still open and ongoing and it is not settled at all.

The lady at Halifax then said it didn't matter really, as it made no difference to me as my premiums are not affected and if there is anything else to do the underwriters would surely let them know, so they were not interested to talk to LV or change anything in their system.

 

So at present the Halifax shows this as settled with me not being at fault, the underwriters LV show it as not settled, still in progress and disputed.

 

As these were only telephone calls I have sent a letter to the Halifax today with a summary of my telephone conversation with them advising them of what the underwriters have told me and what was generally discussed over the phone.

 

Had quite an interesting conversation with the Underwriters though. They said it is very common for the police not to do a collision report. They have that all the time, irrespective of how many cars are involved. If nobody got seriously injured they will do away with a report. Apparently it's common practice nowadays.Well, learned something there, but I guess they deal with these things every day.

 

 

 

 

 

[The Phantom]

Received the attached today. It's a Notice of Transfer of Proceedings.

So the Notice of Allocation wasn't the next step as I incorrectly assumed....

Took them four weeks to do this transfer to Truro....now I have to wait for Truro County Court to get started on this.

I can see this will all take a while.

 

Have also spoken to my underwriters again.

It would appear they haven't paid anything out to anyone. They say it is still all 'in dispute'.

Which indicates to me they haven't paid out to the lady in front of me yet, because I was pushed. Which could explain why she has been a bit tight lipped when I asked her for a statement. Maybe she checked with her insurers and was told not to say anything.

 

 

[The Phantom]

In preparation for a potential upcoming hearing I had a look on the internet and found the following which I find very informative 

 

https://www.inbrief.co.uk/preparing-for-trial/preparing-small-claims-hearing/

 

I will start to put my own witness statement together and make a sketch of the accident scene.

I have also chosen some photos of my car and the car of the defendant after the accident which I will have printed and will add to the bundle.

 

Question, should my witness statement follow the lines of my particulars of claim or can my particulars of claim serve as my witness statement in this case ?

[BankFodder]

It may be a good idea to put a witness statement together – but keep it short.

Presented in numbered paragraphs – dealing with one point is a time. Don't mix and match. Most importantly, keep it short. They really don't want pages and pages.
A couple of pages of A4 should be more than enough.

Also, you could prepare a skeleton argument. You have their defence and so I think it would be worth producing a document – once again numbered paragraphs – addressing each point that is made in their defence.

So paragraph 1 would be "the defendant says X X X (brief summary) – in fact the defendant has failed to blah blah – or at the time admitted blah blah – the damage to their vehicle demonstrates otherwise in that blah blah blah)

That kind of thing.

Don't forget each one will have to be signed a statement of truth.

The new wording for a statement of truth from first of April 2020 is

Quote

“…I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.”

 

[The Phantom]

I have done a couple of Skeleton Arguments for my financial settlement case in the Family Court as part of my divorce proceedings. The Skeleton Argument there followed three sections: 1) Background  2) Applicable Law 3) Argument

I assume it will be the same in Civil Law / Small Claims ?

If anybody has got any suggestions for applicable law / case law for a case such as this, please let me know

I will also have a search on the internet to see what I can find

[The Phantom]

I found this one which sort of relates to what I wrote in the Particulars of claim. 

 

"The famous definition of negligence is taken from a case held over 100 years ago, but is still in place today. It is either:

The omission to do something which a reasonable man would normally do in the situation

Or

Doing something that a reasonable person would not do in those circumstances

Case law was established with Brown & Lynn v Western Scottish Motor Traction Co Ltd:

This case states “…the distance which should separate 2 vehicles travelling one behind the other must depend upon many variable factors – the speed, the nature of the locality, the other traffic present or to be expected, the opportunity available to the following driver of commanding a view ahead of the leading vehicle, the distance within which the following vehicle can be pulled up and many other things”"

If anyone has something more recent I could use, please let me know

[unclebulgaria67]

Quick question.  What is the basis for the third party/insurers believing you have any responsibility for the accident ?

 

 

[The Phantom]

They don't - their defence is just under half an A4 page in which they basically admit negligence and liability. They state their client can't remember pushing me forward into the car in front, but admits negligence and liability for hitting me in the back. That's all they say.

So they are probably trying to get out of the damage caused to the front of my car, but the rear impact and rear end damage was enough to write my car off anyway. Value of the car £1650, total damage estimated at just under £7000 by damage assessor.

 

It is at this stage unclear why they are forcing it to court and trying to defend although they have admitted liability, they have declined mediation as well by the way

 

[unclebulgaria67]

Think the strategy is to confine the fault of their driver to your car damage only.

 

They don't want any suggestion that it was their driver who caused the accident to happen and they therefore become liable for all of the other claims in this accident chain.

 

I should imagine you would gain an agreement outside of court to  cover just your claim, providing that you agree that any liability is confined to just the damage to the rear of your car, as their driver due to the chain accident, hit the rear of your car.

 

 

[The Phantom]

You are probably on to something here.

I believe my insurance is refusing to pay the damage to the car in front of me, based on the fact I was pushed by the car behind me.

If this goes forward through all six cars involved it could become quite expensive for the last one , i.e. the lady who hit me.

I now wonder if DirectLine has already been held liable for the damage to my car and the one in front of me....I am not making a claim for personal injury, but maybe the lady in front of me has changed her mind (she claimed she was fine at the scene of the accident and drove off after the police had finished with her) and maybe is now trying for personal injury as well now (whip lash...), but my insurance is refusing to entertain this and has passed it to Direct Line.

 

You could be right with your assumption here, thinking of it

[The Phantom]

Have just done my sketch of the accident for the court bundle.

 

I found the following on the internet and used it for that purpose. 

http://draw.accidentsketch.co.uk/

 

It's free and very easy to use and as this thread is already quite full of templates and ideas I thought I add the link as well. It really is a good tool to use for a good accident sketch.Just in case someone else is looking for something like that.

It prints out well too.

[The Phantom]

Quick update.

Today was the deadline to provide a response to the court as per my post directly above.

I didn't get a copy from Plexus Law (I e-mailed and posted my response on the 6th of May)

Instead I got an e-mail from my friends at Plexus Law asking me to send them all my documents in support of my claim.

 

I just finished reading it when the phone rang and it was Plexus Law on the phone, again askng me to supply them with the documents so they could review them.

 

I pointed out that I was still waiting for my copy of their response to court and that otherwise I wouldn't discuss anything over the phone. Everything would be done in writing or not at all.

They said that was OK, but could I send them the documents.

 

I said I am awaiting further directions from the Judge and he would surely direct what I have to submit and by when he needs to have it. At that point I would furnish them with their copy of the paperwork.

 

I was then keen to end the call and told them I am not discussing anything further.

 

I am not sending them my court bundle and all my documents yet, I will wait for further directions from court

 

Besides their client had all the main paperwork anyway from me, why should I send it all again, they can get it from their client.But I bet their client sent it to her insures DirectLine who haven't passed it to the Solicitors or something like that.

Edited May 19, 2020 by The Phantom

[BankFodder]

Were you not given standard directions – which includes a requirement that each side discloses the documents 14 days before the hearing date –

 

Quote

(i) a direction that each party shall, at least 14 days before the date fixed for the final hearing, file and serve on every other party copies of all documents (including any expert’s report) on which he intends to rely at the hearing; and

https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part27#27.4

What date is the hearing?

[BankFodder]

Also, I've just noticed the document which you posted up on 6 May.

I'm sorry to say that it really is unhelpful that you post up a document like that with part of the left hand side cut off so that we can't even see whole sentences. I do think that with the amount of effort people are putting into helping you, you could at least take care to present a document in the way that you would like it to be presented to you.

[The Phantom]

NO, the Judge doesn't want a hearing. He wants to deal with this on paperwork only. See my post above. He just asked both parties to agree with this. I did, but not sure what the other party has said, as they didn't disclose their response to me

[The Phantom]

4 minutes ago, BankFodder said:

Also, I've just noticed the document which you posted up on 6 May.

I'm sorry to say that it really is unhelpful that you post up a document like that with part of the left hand side cut off so that we can't even see whole sentences. I do think that with the amount of effort people are putting into helping you, you could at least take care to present a document in the way that you would like it to be presented to you.

 

I tried to upload it as a pdf attachment, but it kept defaulting to a jpg and put it straight into my post as a picture. I have no idea why it did this. But as nobody said anything at the time, I thought it was OK, there is not much missing on the left hand side, a letter on some of the lines I think at most. Apologies for the inconvenience. 

 

The upshot is that the Judge has allocated it to the Small Claims Track and would like to proceed without a hearing on paperwork only (if all parties agree to this). He asked both parties in the form on page two to confirm their agreement. This was supposed to be filed with court by 4 pm today, copy to the other party. I did this on the 6th of May, but never received the other parties copy of their response, so not sure what their thoughts on this are.

[BankFodder]

Well why don't you rescan the document – if you don't have a scanner then use Adobe scan on your phone and post up the complete document please.

[The Phantom]

As I said, nobody said anything at the time when I posted it, so I thought it was OK.

Please find attached another copy now. I have agreed to determination on paper only, I do not know what the other party has said as they never sent me their copy of their response form.

Scan1.pdf

Edited May 19, 2020 by The Phantom

[BankFodder]

I expect that @Andyorch will be along to give you proper direction – but I would certainly want to make it known to the court that the other side were cooperating in terms of disclosing papers and I would make sure that the court had all the relevant papers in time for considering the case.

[The Phantom]

Thanks for that.

I believe the Judge will now decide whether the claim can be dealt with on papers only and then issue further directions.

I have all my papers ready in a court style bundle, paginated and indexed.

My witness statement referencing the relevant evidence in the bundle.

 

I won't disclose this to the other party until directed.

 

If the other party has disagreed with consideration on paper then I don't know what will happen. Maybe they will try an hearing via skype or something. But I am sure i will get further directions from court to this effect within the next two weeks or so

[BankFodder]

I'm afraid I wouldn't be so trusting of the court. They're all very decent – but extremely inefficient at the best of times and now is not the best of times.

I would write to them – and also I think I would be phoning regularly to find out what is going on. Twice a week if possible

[The Phantom]

Truro Court is operating and open to the public according to their website, but getting through on the phone is challenging at the best of times, never mind at the present times.... I will keep on to them via e-mail, as that seems to be the most effective way.

 

I'll give them a few days , as the deadline was only today to submit our forms.

[AndyOrch]

Looking at the Notice of Allocation directions re standard disclosure are yet to be given.....which will be given nearer the time. once a trial date has been set.

 

Here is another users Notice of Allocation which the court wish to be heard on paper , the trial date has been included.....and you will see the that standard directions have been given and by date.

 

SCT (1).pdf

 

 

Andy

[The Phantom]

This order is far more comprehensive than the one I got ....

In my case the DJ is really only asking the parties whether they would agree to the case being dealt with on paperwork only and asked for a response by the 19.05.

There is really nothing more.

 

I have agreed to the case being dealt with on papers only, but do not know the other parties response as they didn't send me a copy.

 

I think we both have to agree for this to go ahead on paperwork only. I don't know what happens if the other party doesn't agree.

I suppose the Court will consider a remote hearing or postpone the whole thing, which would be very annoying really, considering the other party declined mediation as well.

 

When the Solicitors called me yesterday they kept asking  me to send them 'my documents' for this claim. I told them their client has already had all of that and they should get the documents from their client. I am not going to re-send it all now. I think they  want to see what I got and whether they can agree with a hearing on paperwork only or not, but if that is the case they have left it a bit late, considering the court wanted a reply by yesterday.