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

[BankFodder]

Yes, I'm afraid it will also mean that you will have to pay the hearing fee which is crazy seeing as they admit it.This shows the quality of the advice they are receiving.

 

Who are the solicitors and what is the name of the paralegal? We may as well all know and have a laugh

[The Phantom]

It's still Plexus Law which I believe do bulk processing for corporate clients (like insurance companies)

 

P L E X U S    Bismah Qaisar | Paralegal 

 

10 Livery Street| Birmingham | B3 2NU

[BankFodder]

Well clearly they don't have the practical good sense to advise the client to cut their losses and simply pay you out and save the time and trouble and money and inconvenience to themselves, to you, to the client, to the insured – everybody. If that the only people who win here are Plexus who presumably get additional money and of course Bismah Qaisar Paralegal who has a job.

[BankFodder]

Could you point me to where you have posted the claim form please

[The Phantom]

I don't think I posted a copy of it on the thread here yet

I can do that but have to neutralize it again as usual. 

Remember the extended Particulars of claim were served separately

 

(I believe you mean the claim form MCOL issued on my behalf to the defendant ?)

[BankFodder]

I don't know – just whatever documents you served as your claim which contain the facts of your allegations

[The Phantom]

OK, the particulars of claim are bit further back on the thread, I have a look, I will post a neutralized claim form a little later

[The Phantom]

 

It's post 108 onwards which show / discuss the expanded Particulars of claim which were served. The actual claim form is more basic, but I will upload a copy later with personal details taken out

[BankFodder]

If you can just post the actual document which you served then that will be helpful thank you.

[The Phantom]

Will do. 

Tell you what, I will post both the claim form and the extended Particulars of claim together

Give me a short while to blank out personal details and I will post both a little later

[The Phantom]

Apologies for the delay. I got it now. Had a technical issue at home.

Documents attached now

Scan1.pdf

[BankFodder]

Okay – you did allege that she pushed you into the car in front and that was what caused the damage.

Your position will be that she's admitted negligence, she admitted colliding with the back of your car and there is no evidence to suggest that you had already hit the car in front.

Were there any skid marks near your vehicle? If your car had been pushed in the car in front then there might reasonably be some skid marks from your vehicle

[The Phantom]

When the accident occured in December it was 5 pm and pitch black, the road was also a bit wet from a drizzle that evening. You couldn't really see if there were any marks on the road. It's not a place you could go back the next day and have a look either, as it is a very busy A road. 

It was something I thought I could get from the police report, but they never even did a report of course

 

The only thing I can think of is that if I had hit the car in front whilst moving on my own steam (i.e. actively driving into the back of that vehicle) the damage to that car as well as  the front end damage to mine would have been far more severe. 

We need to remember that the lady in front of me only sustained light damage to her car (rear bumper) and was able to drive home in her car on her own with no problem. If I had driven full pelt into her I think she would have sustained worse damage than she actually did.

 

The fact that she got away so lightly was due to the fact that my car was pushed and not driven into her.

 

I was thinking of maybe contacting my insurance Halifax and checking with them whether they have accepted a claim for that damage and how bad the damage was.  Or whether they just passed it on to Direct Line as well , because I was pushed and what Direct Line's response to them was.

 

 

[The Phantom]

Received the attached from court today. 

 

It's the allocation questionnaire as expected.

 

I will return this to court next week, the questions are pretty self explanatory.

However, I have two questions:

 

1) Mediation : should I tick yes to this as a matter of course ? I don't believe this is suitable for mediation really, but will it be held against me if I tick "no" ? It obviously says you need to be flexible when entering mediation, but in this case the other party has to pay for the damage they caused and the accrued costs, there is little flexibility on my side on this, but I am worried it may count against me if I say "no"

 

2) D2 - do I list the damage report I have as written expert evidence and put the cost as £78 which is what it cost ?

 

Scan3.pdf

[BankFodder]

Have you uploaded the whole form?

[The Phantom]

yes, that's all there was, plus one page with her defence, but I already uploaded that before, so didn't include it again here

[The Phantom]

Have returned the AQ 

I ticked 'yes' to mediation, just in case. 

Also listed the damage report under D2 - Expert witness written statement and showed the cost of £78 as already incurred.

 

Also had a response form the Police Collision Unit. They will waive the fee of £35 for the supply of the details of the lady who was in the car in front of me.

I should get her details in the post shortly and will make contact with here then and see if she can provide me with a statement

[The Phantom]

Had a letter from the Collisions Unit of my local police station today.

They sent me free of charge  the details of all vehicles involved in the crash, it appears there were six in total.

I now got the details for the lady who was immediately in front of me, she doesn't live far from where I am.

I'll write her a letter over the week end and hope she agrees to give me a statement.

 

Otherwise no news.

 

I have returned the completed AQ to court and it was received there Wednesday.

 

I haven't received the copy of the other party's AQ yet from Plexus Law. I will send them my copy when I get theirs.

 

 

[BankFodder]

If I were you I would drop her a very nice and gentle and informal note and basically say that you are one of the people involved in the accident the other day. You hope that she doesn't mind that you are provided with her details and the details of the other drivers involved by the police. You'd be very happy to share this information with her if she would like and you hope you don't mind that you would like to meet up with and have a chat because there seems to be an insurance issue with another driver – not her – and could you come round.

This would be the best way to approach her. Then if she says yes then you could go round and in a very relaxed way asking various questions and say was she aware how you managed to run into the back of her, you hope she's all right – asked after her health – express interest in her – and then ask very gently would it be all right if you reported to the insurer that you were pushed into her and it wasn't you who drove into her first. You can congratulate her on having stopped – and say you also had stopped – but the person behind you managed to push you into her and damage all three cars.

You will find it is much better to do this face-to-face and then if she confirms what you think, ask if you could make a few notes and she would be prepared to sign it because you are having difficulty with your insurer.

Much better to do this face-to-face. You can't imagine how many people could produce excellent statements but if there simply asked to do so in writing, you don't hear from them again. Face-to-face is always best – a nice gentle polite friendly – create trust first of all and then see if she will sign the notes. Don't call it a statement. People don't like that. It sounds too formal

[The Phantom]

Yes, I didn't think of it that way.

I'll attempt to make first contact and then see how it pans out.

[The Phantom]

Attached the Allocation Questionnaires.

I only received theirs today, they also filed late with court

 

I think they forgot about it and only remembered to do the AQ when they got my copy.

 

Note they ticked no to mediation, so they obviously trying to drag this out as long as possible , as a court date will be further away than a mediators appointment, but that's OK.

At least it's not me who declined mediation

 

no response yet from the lady I contacted about the accident. Having said that, all I have for her is the address the car is registered at, she may not actually be there at the moment. I have no way of knowing

AQ.pdf

[BankFodder]

Is Truro your local court?

[The Phantom]

No, Plymouth,

 

If you scroll down in the pdf, I have scanned both AQs. Theirs and mine

 

As the defendant however is a private individual I think it will be allocated to Truro, which is her local court

[BankFodder]

Yes. You're right. I was worried that maybe you were over the other side of the country somewhere and would have a long journey.

[The Phantom]

No, Truro is around 1.5 - 2 hr drive from here

The court there is a bit outside of Truro and not too difficult to get to.

I already had a look at that.