Help! Received County Court Claim for a Car Accident

Meadows

DaveF327 wrote: »

It sounds like they have already been involved in a court case for things to have gone as far as a CCJ. The court is obliged to send the judgement to the respondent, not the insurer. The respondent merely passes it on for payment.

It sounds like a court letter has been received to me and funnily enough my daughter has just received the same thing today.
She had an accident a few months ago when a woman cut in sharply to her lane on a motorway and my daughter was unable to stop due to lack of space.
Her insurance dealt with the claim and her car was written off and they have paid the other drivers insurance, yet today my daughter has received a court form as the other driver is claiming £2,500 for damage to their car.
My daughter had phoned her insurance and been told do nothing send all the paper work to us by recorded delivery this claim has been dealt with.

DaveF327

lauravw wrote: »

Thanks Dave, just to clarify, there hasn't been a CCJ entered yet, we just received the claim letter from the court today.

My bad. I misread. Similar advice applies, though.

Quentin

EdGasket wrote: »

Maybe in an ideal world but if it's anything like my insurance experience, the ccj will be awarded against you before the insurance company pull their finger out and get around to looking at your post !
Personally I would respond as required to the County Court to thoroughly dispute the case, especially as you are not 100% sure the insurer will help. I think you only get 10 days or so to respond so you can't hang around. Also try the insurance route and see if you can get them to accept responsibility on your behalf.

Even if you get a CCJ because the insurer is late, as long as you have complied with your policy (which will include passing all correspondence over to the insurer to deal with), your insurer will sort gettong the ccj removed at their cost.

But responding to the court yourself can jeopardise the outcome.

EdGasket

Quentin wrote: »

Even if you get a CCJ because the insurer is late, as long as you have complied with your policy (which will include passing all correspondence over to the insurer to deal with), your insurer will sort gettong the ccj removed at their cost.

But responding to the court yourself can jeopardise the outcome.

Again this is in an ideal world where things work as they should. Why risk having the bailiffs turn up at your door because of a CCJ awarded against you by default because the court received no response? The insurer should not mind that you contest the claim; that is what they would do also.

Quentin

EdGasket wrote: »

Again this is in an ideal world where things work as they should. Why risk having the bailiffs turn up at your door because of a CCJ awarded against you by default because the court received no response? The insurer should not mind that you contest the claim; that is what they would do also.

No!

The insurer may not want to contest the claim! You should just comply with your policy - as you agreed to when taking it out!

And bailiffs turning up at your door following a ccj is just scaremongering - it doesn't work like that!

Joe_Horner

There's nothing wrong with replying to the court with a simple statement that you've referred the matter to your insurers (at the time of the accident) and requesting time for them to respond.

The court doesn't have to agree but they're usually pretty reasonable. Given the delay so far in the claimant making the claim, a few more weeks for the respondent to find out where things stand is hardly likely to be deemed unreasonable

Fathertobe

This happen to me I wrote my car and the other car off total claim was around £12,000 then about 14months later I get a letter from court claiming injuries for the sum of £3,000 by this time I'd change insurance companies.
I forwarded all the paper work to my old insurance company with all the details of my old policy number recorded delevery I also contacted the court do not leave it just to the insurance company like people have said they could take months by this time the court date could of been and gone and not defended at all.
The only differeance being i did inform my insurance company I can See why you didn't but looking back should of done to be on the safe side

Quentin

Joe_Horner wrote: »

There's nothing wrong with replying to the court with a simple statement that you've referred the matter to your insurers (at the time of the accident) and requesting time for them to respond.

The court doesn't have to agree but they're usually pretty reasonable. Given the delay so far in the claimant making the claim, a few more weeks for the respondent to find out where things stand is hardly likely to be deemed unreasonable

The court cannot allow more time for a defence to be submitted just by the defendant sending in a "simple statement".

You breach your policy conditions by not sticking to them (which includes not replying to correspondence over a claim), and could lead to problems - (eg by writing to the court you are admitting you are aware of the proceedings).