Car Accident - now court summons please help!

g0dfather

I had an accident in December 2008. Basically the driver in front skidded on ice. I wasn't able stop in time and hit the back of them (I actually know the driver and used to work with him).

The car I was driving was my wife's company car and so the next day I sent the insurance details to the other driver and I called my insurer to register the claim and get my car repaired (my wife's company car insurers is Zurich corporate).

I thought that would be the end of it, but then in April 2009, I received a letter from the 3rd party's insurer (Tesco) saying they had had no response from my insurers and would be issuing legal proceeding against me if they didn't get payment in 14 days.

I was extremely worried and called both insurers immediately. My insurers told me they would take care of it and asked me to email a copy of Tesco's letter to them which I did.

Then in August 2009 I received another letter from Tesco's solicitors saying the intending to take legal proceedings against me as the claim still hadn't been settled. Again very concerned, I called my insurers and went through the same process.

Then a month ago - another letter from the solicitor stating I had 14 days to pay the claim or they would be taking me to court. I emailed my original Zurich contact who passed me to 3 different people, to one that finally said he was responsible and would be handling it for me.

All I thought was resolved until today I received court summons!

I really don't know what to do now. I've tried to get my insurers to handle this but now I'm going to have to go to court.

Please give me some advice as I am now extremely worried. What is the point in my having insurance if they don't take care of situations like this?

Thanks/

g0dfather

Can anyone help please?

sarahg1969

Don't reply to any of the papers. Send them in to the insurers by special delivery, and also ring them to tell them they are on their way. They will deal with them from there. Proceedings have just been issued because the insurers have delayed in settling or because an agreement can't be reached.

mcjordi

as sarah says pass everything on to the insurer unanswered.. that what they are there for.. chances are some of this claim will be for injuries

cyclonebri1

sarahg1969 wrote: »

Don't reply to any of the papers. Send them in to the insurers by special delivery, and also ring them to tell them they are on their way. They will deal with them from there. Proceedings have just been issued because the insurers have delayed in settling or because an agreement can't be reached.

Is that the correct advice for the op?, not that I've been in the same position, but is not complying with a court summons likely to further complicate the issue?

The op obviously has no confidence in the insurers acting correctly on his behalf, rightly from what he states, and I doubt would have the inclination to wait out the summons period without undue stress.

Quentin

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Is that the correct advice for the op?

Yes it is.

martindow

I think I would also write to the court to explain what you are doing. I would not trust your insurers who do not seem to be acting in a timely way.

cyclonebri1

Quentin wrote: »

Yes it is.

I somehow don't think the op will be greatly reassured by that. An open internet forum populated by anyone with a keyboard is not quite the right place to ask about serious issues such as failure to appear. :think:

Quentin

martindow wrote: »

I think I would also write to the court to explain what you are doing. I would not trust your insurers who do not seem to be acting in a timely way.

Just putting in writing to the court that you have received the claim can come back and bite you in the future.

Let the insurer sort this out - it's what they are being paid to do.

Quentin

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

An open internet forum populated by anyone with a keyboard is not quite the right place to ask about serious issues such as failure to appear. :think:

The OP hasn't been ordered to "appear" anywhere, nor have they asked here about "failure to appear", (whatever that means).

You are clearly ignorant on county court procedure.

djheath

I happened to be in a similar position to yourself last year. I had a small minor crash in 2007. Cars were repaired through insurance and thought it was all settled - i.e. never heard anything about it after the repairs were done. Out of the blue I had a court summons asking for payment of £2000. I panicked too.

My aunt works in the court system and this is what I did was as follows based on her recommendations:

Took a couple of photocopies of the summons.
Replied to the court to say I would be disputing the claim, i.e. not paying it at the moment and also said that I would be passing it on to my insurance company to deal with. Sent that off to the court via recorded delivery.
Sent a letter to the solicitor who had raised the court summons, also saying I was passing it on to my insurance company. Also by recorded delivery.
Called my insurers who gave me an address to send the summons too. Sent the summons with a covering letter explaining what I had done above and sent it recorded delivery.
Chased my insurance company nearly everday to make sure, one, they had received the summons, two were dealing with it, three asking when it would be sorted.

A requirement of my job is to not have any CCJ's or convictions, so I wanted to make sure this was all sorted quickly.
I had two weeks to get the dispute dealt with and after lots and lots of chase up calls to my insurers, they finally came through at the 11th hour and said they had dealt with the claim, literally the day before it was due!!

I haven't heard anything since and so it has all been dealt with.

It's not a nice feeling and you feel like it is a personal attack from the third party, but it will more likely be they have no idea the summons has taken place. It's more likely the two insurers not doing their jobs properly and not talking to each other!!

Hope it gets sorted soon.