County court judgment unfair

andy8

Hi everyone.

I have a problem and hope with all of your wisdom can help me.

In 2002 i had a minor collision with another car on a slip road and so exchanged phone numbers and address.

For 2 weeks i heard nothing from the other person and had repaired my own car at my cost which was only £80, The damage on the other car i would say would have been about the same, so as i did not hear anything from him in 2 weeks i pressumed that he had repaired his own car also at his own cost.

I informed my insurance that i had a bump and not heared anything from the third party and was told not to worry about it.

A few weeks from the accident i split up with my partner who lived at the address that i had given the gentleman from the accident and moved back with my parents. now although i had told people of my new address, bank, work,phone company i did not tell this guy form the bump my new addresss as i had thought it had all been forgoten about

Approx 14mths later i moved back with my partner and everything was fine until i applied for a car on finance 3 weeks ago when i was told that i had been refused credit and told to contact experian for a credit report which i did for £2.

It came back last week and to my shock had found that the third party had taken me to court and in my absence obtained a county court judgment against me for £851.

Now if he had informed me that he was taking legal action i would of just told my insurance to deal with it and they would of paid for the damage( end of story)

But as i stand now I have a ccj aginst me and there is no way that i can afford to pay this money and since then i have changed insurances

I have been told that i can have the ccj set aside but i refuse to pay this guy for something that was both our faults and if the case is reopened i could have the ccj against me for another 6yrs.

I think this is very unfair and am at my witts end.


Please help

Thank you

lynsayjane

bloody hell! i didnt think they'd be able to do something like that without ever contacting you! thats pretty shotty. i presume you were on the electoral register for your parents place so they ould have easily found you had you tried? i'd speak to cab or a solicitor!

james32_uk

There's so many b@stards out there it's not funny. If it were me I'd be on the phone to my insurer at the time of the incident as I would have thought they still could have a part to play in this. Afterall you were insured by them and reported it. It's not your fault that youve only just found out about a claim.

Good luck

jobbingmusician

I don't think the fact you have changed insurers is relevant - it's who you were insured with at the time that are the relevant people. Contact your (then) insurers and get them to pay up!

Why did the person you hit contact you rather than your insurance company? Surely his insurance company should just have contacted your insurance company ???

andy8

I dont think my insurance will want to know as the accident was 4yrs ago,

Surely there just going to say that they was never informed,

rosysparkle

But you informed them at the time of the accident, so they were aware.

Did both you and your partner move out of your previous address? Any communication from the other party to the accident should have been forwarded or returned to sender by whoever was living there.

andy8

Yes the paperwork did go to the my partners address but as we was speaking and she was not aware of my parents address she did not foward anything and so i did not recieve anything.

Is this a reason for taking this back to court and trying for the ccj to be set aside or just take it in the back?

rosysparkle

I'm afraid that you can't really blame the other party to the accident for your (ex)partner's failure to forward stuff to you or return it to sender.

As far as they were concerned, they sent letters to the address they had, and those letters weren't being returned, they were being ignored.

I believe that you can apply for the judgement to be set aside on the grounds that you didn't receive the notification, but if you are back living at the address where papers were sent originally, the court may not believe that you didn't receive the letters.

It's worth a try, though, and also you should contact your previous insurers as you did say that you had told them at the time of the accident.

andy8

I have proof that i was not on the electoral list until 8mths after the date od the incedent, Will that be proof enough??

Dr.Shoe_2

Technically, no one can take you to court without your knowledge. County Court Papers have to be served in person by the court bailliff (AFAIK). You need to be there to defend yourself, it might be worth obtaining a transcript of the court case?

file_wizzard

Dr.Shoe wrote:

Technically, no one can take you to court without your knowledge. County Court Papers have to be served in person by the court bailliff (AFAIK). You need to be there to defend yourself, it might be worth obtaining a transcript of the court case?

It sounds very much as if the order has been made in default when the OP did not respond.

The best course of action is to obtain a copy of the original order and go from there, if it was issued in default then no transcript will exist, just the presiding judges comments on the order.

The OP didn’t state if the other party actually provided his insurance details, it seems quite odd for a CCJ to be sought, this would only normally happen to recover uninsured losses.

If it transpires the other party was actually uninsured full stop then this would be adequate reasoning along with the non service for the OP to request a set aside.

However the fact that the OP’s insures were informed at the time still remains and they are still liable, however claims normally have to be made in a “reasonable” time frame, and I’m sure the insurers will argue this point.

With regards to the CCJ its self, if the original order is set aside for non service then one of two things will happen ,

(1) the amount “owed” will be agreed and settled without further action.
(2) A further order will be entered, and provided that this is settled within 28 days of order it will not be formally registered.