County Court Claim Form Received

Monkey123

Hi All,

Please could you help?

A year ago I had a small collision with a car in front of me (whilst I was in standing traffic - gutted!). We exchanged details, I contacted my insurance company and my car was repaired. I noted under my customer login on the insurance website a few months later that the case was closed, so I thought nothing else of the matter.

I have now received a County Court Claim Form claiming the cost of repairs and cost of hire vehicle for the third party (no warning letter or “letter before action” was received from the Claimant before I received the Claim Form). I have sent a copy of the Claim Form to my insurance and they have confirmed that they have not paid out any third party claim because they were "still waiting for information", hence the reason I have received the County Court Claim form in order to speed up proceedings.


What is slightly amusing is that my insurance company and the third party insurance are part of the same insurance group!

I am waiting for a response from my insurance company and I am hopeful they will sort it out quickly. My big concern is that if they don't facilitate payment within the 14 days from receipt I may receive a CCJ by default and do not want this on my record.

I understand that if payment is made direct to the Claimant, no response is necessary to the Court. Is there any response I should be making to the Court just in case the settlement doesn’t get there on time? Should I file a defence?


Also is there any way of introducing my insurance company as a co-defendant?


Thanks in advance for all your help and advice.
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vax2002

You should file a defence and send the form back saying you will defend the case.
The defence should be conflict of interest, claimant and beneficiary are one of the same.

alistair.long

inform your insurance of the court docs.

If you are saying it is a minor accident then what was the need for hire by the third party.

mikey72

Who's their insurer?

vaio

vax2002 wrote: »

You should file a defence and send the form back saying you will defend the case.
The defence should be conflict of interest, claimant and beneficiary are one of the same.

Nah, the case is between the OP & the driver they hit

vax2002

vaio wrote: »

Nah, the case is between the OP & the driver they hit

Good point well made, who is the name of the claimant, is it the other driver or is it the insurance company.

vaio

alistair.long wrote: »

inform your insurance of the court docs.

If you are saying it is a minor accident then what was the need for hire by the third party.

Just a wild stab in the dark nut but I'm guessing they hired a car to go to work/shops/school etc whilst theirs was being repaired

Monkey123

vax2002 wrote: »

Good point well made, who is the name of the claimant, is it the other driver or is it the insurance company.

The Claimant is the other driver.

There is no mention of any attempt at insurance recovery in the particulars.

vaio

vax2002 wrote: »

Good point well made, who is the name of the claimant, is it the other driver or is it the insurance company.

it will always be between the two drivers involved.

The insurance company might be doing it as a subrogated claim or they might have appointed solicitors to act but the case will always be between the two drivers involved.

OP, just pass it unanswered to your insurance company (and maybe follow up with a phone call in a week to make sure they are doing something)

vax2002

Just passing it to your insurance company will not prevent a CCJ, they may agree to provide your defence, but you must file one in time and you must attend the court to defend yourself.
Do not send anyone original documents, only photocopies.
Just leaving it to them could see you have your personal property seized and sold by bailiffs .
This is quite serious stuff.
The other driver has obviously got fed up of your insurance giving him the run around and is taking himself up on his legal right to sue you directly.
My general advice would be to name your own insurance as a counter claim as the company responsible by contract for your insured liability, that should wake them up a bit.
They do always have the option of settling the guys claim, if they dont and he wins in court, which he will if you are at fault then by the time your insurance company decide to step in you may have already been turned over by the court bailiffs.
The situation is very serious indeed and I would seek immediate legal advice from someone totally unconnected to either company.
This is between you and him.

Crazy_Jamie

vax2002 wrote:

Just passing it to your insurance company will not prevent a CCJ, they may agree to provide your defence, but you must file one in time and you must attend the court to defend yourself.
Do not send anyone original documents, only photocopies.
Just leaving it to them could see you have your personal property seized and sold by bailiffs .
This is quite serious stuff.
The other driver has obviously got fed up of your insurance giving him the run around and is taking himself up on his legal right to sue you directly.
My general advice would be to name your own insurance as a counter claim as the company responsible by contract for your insured liability, that should wake them up a bit.
They do always have the option of settling the guys claim, if they dont and he wins in court, which he will if you are at fault then by the time your insurance company decide to step in you may have already been turned over by the court bailiffs.
The situation is very serious indeed and I would seek immediate legal advice from someone totally unconnected to either company.
This is between you and him.

There are a number of issues with this post, but the main one is that you seem to be ignoring the fact that the OP's insurer has a legal obligation to satisfy any judgment made against him (s.151 Road Traffic Act 1988). In practice therefore an insurer will take on and defend claims of this nature as a matter of course. Your talk of bailiffs and such is just scaremongering at this point. Even if an Acknowledgement of Service is not filed within 14 days, if there is a legitimate dispute as to liability the insurer will make an application to set aside that the judgment that will be entered in default. But in any event default judgment does not set an amount in terms of quantum, so that is not the end of the matter.

Your advice for the OP to put a Defence in himself and name the insurer in a counterclaim is wrong both in the way that you have expressed it and the principle. What you wanted to say is that the OP should bring in his insurer as a Second Defendant , but such an approach generally only occurs when the insurer brings themselves in due to suspicions of fraud. It is not appropriate in this case as far as I can see.

The right advice has already been given, namely that the OP should pass the Claim Form and all documentation received with it to the insurance company. A phone call in a week for an update on how the case is progressing also can't hurt. Seeking independent legal advice is entirely unnecessary and will only put the OP through additional and unneeded expense. The OP should not be defending this by himself and will only have to attend Court if required to do so once the matters in dispute have been established.

On a side note, both of your posts have encouraged an approach whereby the Defendant driver should seek to defend a legal claim themselves. It is worth bearing in mind that if an insurer is not notified of a claim within seven days they may be relinquished of their liability to satisfy any judgment under s.151 of the Road Traffic Act, which will shift the liability to the driver personally. Your advice generally has a tone that discourages people from passing on documents to their insurance company, which could realistically lead to someone reading your advice and failing to notify their insurer. That is a significant concern, and I would recommend that you bear that in mind in future when wording your advice.

Monkey123 wrote:

There is no mention of any attempt at insurance recovery in the particulars.

There generally isn't. But in practice if the amount claimed for repairs and such has already been paid by the Claimant's insurer, then this is a subrogated claim. In fact, despite generally the two parties in the litigation being named as the two drivers in cases such as this, in practice it is a litigation battle between the two insurance companies.