Car Accident - now court summons please help!

g0dfather

OK thanks for the replies, though I'm now a little confused.

I've sent the papers to my insurers and spoken to them. They've told me they are handling it and not to reply to the court.

I'm of course concerned and not sure this is the right thing to do. I've been continually sending the papers to my insurers and keep getting these threatening letters. Surely if I ignore court papers and don't reply within the 14 days I could get in major problems?

g0dfather

Thanks djheath - that all sounds like good advice that I will now follow.

I am just amazed that it has got to this stage. What is the point in having insurance in the first place if this is what happens!

Quentin

djheath wrote: »

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!!

This is misinformation.

When a summons is issued, it is a simple matter to extend the period before it has to be replied to 28 days. If the matter has not been resolved between the parties during the 28 day period, then a holding defence is submitted, meaning it will be months before the case would actually end up in a hearing.

In short there is no panic to get this resolved in 14 days.

pendulum

g0dfather wrote: »

... would be issuing legal proceeding against me... I was extremely worried

There's nothing much to be worried about, although you are the one they may be taking to court it is your insurer that has to pay any damages the court awards to the other party. If you do have to go to court you can expect legal assistance from your insurer as well.

The only thing you have to worry about is making sure you tell your insurer and pass on every letter or court correspondence you get, and be able to prove you did this (e.g. keep all emails, keep proof of sending snailmail as well as copies of what you sent).

g0dfather

Quentin wrote: »

This is misinformation.

When a summons is issued, it is a simple matter to extend the period before it has to be replied to 28 days. If the matter has not been resolved between the parties during the 28 day period, then a holding defence is submitted, meaning it will be months before the case would actually end up in a hearing.

In short there is no panic to get this resolved in 14 days.

OK - so the question is: do I leave with the insurers to handle or should I get back to the court asking to extend the period to 28 days?

Quentin

g0dfather wrote: »

I've sent the papers to my insurers and spoken to them. They've told me they are handling it and not to reply to the court........
Surely if I ignore court papers and don't reply within the 14 days I could get in major problems?

Follow your insurer's advice. (It is probably a condition of your policy that you allow them to deal with court correspondence and must not answer it)

As posted previously, you writing and acknowledging receipt of the summons could come back and bite you in future should some admin. blunder result in you getting a CCJ by default. (Which your insurer could get set aside, providing you don't interfere)

And as previously posted, your insurer will be able to stop the 14 day deadline for a reply to the summons.

djheath

g0dfather wrote: »

Thanks djheath - that all sounds like good advice that I will now follow.

I am just amazed that it has got to this stage. What is the point in having insurance in the first place if this is what happens!

Tell me about it. My problem was my insurance company said they had settle the claim 3 months after my accident. The 3rd party insurance then came back asking for more money. My insurance asked how much and why, to which they apparently never replied. Instead of communicating with my insurers again, they waited two years and then issued a court summons to me asking for payment!! Not very nice. To make matters worse, because my claim was still in limbo due them asking for more money, it was lost in the system, sat in theory on a desk of the "waiting to hear from 3rd party insurers dept!" It took a good few calls to track down what was happening and being put through to multiple depts and dead ends! Not nice!

Anyway, even though some have said "dont send anything to the court, it could come back at you in bad way", I think it's better to at least acknowledge receipt of the court summons and show you are doing something about it. This at least covers your back and you have something in your defence to say "yes, I received the summons and I and now passing this on to my insurers who are best placed to deal with it".

What will happen now is, your insurance will pass the summons on to a solicitor, either in house or a third party company. You insurers should be able to give you their contact details once one is assigned to you, so call them direct once this happens if you need to chase them. They will look at all the details of the accident and see whether it's worth fighting for you in court, or they will simple pay up to the court. That should be the end of it. Either way keep on their backs to find out what is happening.

Good luck.

EDIT:
Just to add to what others are saying. I am not disagreeing with their advice, I am just stating what I did and it seemed to work out ok.
Regarding the 28 days thing, yes that is correct. I couldn't remember what it is called and that is what I was acknowledging that I would like to lodge a defence to get the time limit increased to 28 days. Thanks for pointing that out!
All the time I was dealing with my insurers I was clear to them that I had replied to the court and they said that was fine.

Quentin

djheath wrote: »

What will happen now is, your insurance will pass the summons on to a solicitor, either in house or a third party company. You insurers should be able to give you their contact details once one is assigned to you, so call them direct once this happens if you need to chase them. They will look at all the details of the accident and see whether it's worth fighting for you in court, or they will simple pay up to the court. That should be the end of it. Either way keep on their backs to find out what is happening.

More uninformed misinformation.

Issuing a summons like this is often a tactic to "concentrate minds" on getting the matter resolved.

Neither side will want a court case, and there is no need to "simply pay up to the court".

The insurers will hope to settle between themselves - and a court hearing will only come about if liability cannot be agreed between the parties.

martindow

Quentin wrote: »

This is misinformation.

When a summons is issued, it is a simple matter to extend the period before it has to be replied to 28 days. If the matter has not been resolved between the parties during the 28 day period, then a holding defence is submitted, meaning it will be months before the case would actually end up in a hearing.

In short there is no panic to get this resolved in 14 days.

The problem is that you rely on the insurers to deal with this matter and their past record would not give me any confidence in doing this correctly.

If they fail to act in time and the OP has not responded or does not appear in court he will have a CCJ.

Surely it must be sound advice for him to contact the court? At the very least I would phone a couple of days before the hearing to see whether a defence has been lodged and find out if the case is going ahead. If I had any doubts about the insurers dealing with this I would attend the hearing.

I ended up with a CCJ which then had to be set aside as my solicitors had failed to post a defence in time. In a similar situation I would not be trusting of anyone else to protect me.

Quentin

martindow wrote: »

I ended up with a CCJ which then had to be set aside as my solicitors had failed to post a defence in time......At the very least I would phone a couple of days before the hearing

This is why you shouldn't contact the court.

It is not so easy to get a CCJ set aside if you have written to the court personally acknowledging receiving the summons for it!

And at this stage there is no hearing set at all for the OP to be concerned about (so mention of that is just scaremongering!)