Please Help!

hillscrimer

Hi

I'm in need of urgent advice. I had a minor car accident in December 2010. I was at a T junction with a car in front of me, when the junction became clear I rolled forward slowly but the car in front of me rolled backwards slightly instead of pulling away and inevitably we run into each other. We both pulled to the side of the road, exchanged details and agreed to have the damage assessed before getting our insurance companies involved as both cars were only showing minor scratches. I managed to fix my car myself (a bit of filler and a quick spray) so I didn't contact him about it and so waited for him to contact me about his. This contact never came so I naturally assumed like mine the damage was so small it wasn't worth messing around with.

However, two days ago I received a claim form from court asking me to pay his damages, plus his excess, plus intesest, plus solicitors fees, plus court costs, which come to £850. This is the first contact I've had from him since the accident over two years ago!

My questions are:

• Even though I run into the back of him, because he was rolling back at the time does this give me any grounds to claim knock for knock?
• With it now being over 2 years down the line and this being the first time I've heard anything from him does this make any difference to the claim?
• I'd rather not get my insurance involved in case I lose my 7 years no claims, but is the right thing to do? If I need to get them involved, how do I go about finding out who I was insured with at the time as I'm not with the same insurer anymore and I've not kept any paperwork.
• Lastly and most importantly, someone has mentioned to me that this could turn into a CCJ. Is this correct? How would this happen and what can I do to make sure this doesn't happen?

I'm stressing to the max because of this and would really appreciate anyones expereince/help on the matter.

InsideInsurance

1) the challenge will be proving he rolled backwards as he is going to claim that he was stationary and you simply drove into the back of him. If it is a steel hill that the accident happened on then could be worth fighting but generally without witnesses or an honest third party its not worth the fight

2) The only possible argument would be over court and legal fees on the grounds that the TP didnt do enough to settle before issuing. The rest of the costs would stand. Small track cases where these are minimal it is unusual to argue about costs

3) ASKMid.co.uk will tell you for £4, alternatively look at old bank/ credit card statements and try and spot your payment to your insurers

4) It is a CCJ if it goes that far however as long as you pay the CCJ as soon as judgement is awarded then it can be removed from your credit file. Effectively its not the bad sort of CCJ unless you ignore the courts ruling on you having to pay.

Quentin

You won't lose all your NCD.

Your insurer at the time of the incident will deal with this. You will have to try and trace them by way of bank statements/cc statements etc.

If you want to keep your NCD, then either pay up the claim or enter a defence and have your day in court (though if you lose, there will be more costs involved as the other side will get their expenses added on to the claim, and you will have to pay the court costs for the case reaching a hearing).

If you don't pay up, and go to court and lose then you will get a CCJ (though you do get a month to pay up after the judgement before the CCJ gets registered against you)

Although your current insurer won't help you, you do need to tell them about the incident now (assuming you never did so when taking out the policy)

BertTheRaccoon

1- Complete the response pack on the county court papers by ticking the box which says "I intend to dispute all of the claim" - this will buy a total of 28 days from the date you were served with the papers in which to file a defence.

2- Keep a copy of the papers yourself (including the response pack form you send back to the court at Northampton)

3- Get hold of whoever insured you at the time of the bump, explain what has gone on and get the address where you need to send these papers as well as the policy or claim ref number and post off all the court papers to them with a covering letter clearly stating the claim ref or policy number and mark the correspondence as URGENT COURT PAPERS ATTACHED and send this by recorded delivery.

4- Continue to liaise with your insurers about this as they will appoint solicitors to deal or just settle the claim of the third party as it is a small claims matter and probably not worth the expense of trying to defend. Odds are your insurers already are aware of the accident from his solicitors and haven't settled in time. You haven't moved address since the accident by any chance have you?

Hasbeen

hillscrimer wrote: »

Hi

I'm in need of urgent advice. I had a minor car accident in December 2010. I was at a T junction with a car in front of me, when the junction became clear I rolled forward slowly but the car in front of me rolled backwards slightly instead of pulling away and inevitably we run into each other. We both pulled to the side of the road, exchanged details and agreed to have the damage assessed before getting our insurance companies involved as both cars were only showing minor scratches. I managed to fix my car myself (a bit of filler and a quick spray) so I didn't contact him about it and so waited for him to contact me about his. This contact never came so I naturally assumed like mine the damage was so small it wasn't worth messing around with.

However, two days ago I received a claim form from court asking me to pay his damages, plus his excess, plus intesest, plus solicitors fees, plus court costs, which come to £850. This is the first contact I've had from him since the accident over two years ago!

My questions are:

• Even though I run into the back of him, because he was rolling back at the time does this give me any grounds to claim knock for knock?
• With it now being over 2 years down the line and this being the first time I've heard anything from him does this make any difference to the claim?
• I'd rather not get my insurance involved in case I lose my 7 years no claims, but is the right thing to do? If I need to get them involved, how do I go about finding out who I was insured with at the time as I'm not with the same insurer anymore and I've not kept any paperwork.
• Lastly and most importantly, someone has mentioned to me that this could turn into a CCJ. Is this correct? How would this happen and what can I do to make sure this doesn't happen?

I'm stressing to the max because of this and would really appreciate anyones expereince/help on the matter.

You did of course inform your insurance company at the time?:(

jobdone1

Hasbeen wrote: »

You did of course inform your insurance company at the time?:(

As well as your current insurance company this could result in them canceling your insurance for failing to disclose material facts. As you did have an accident even though you did not claim from your previous insurance company. And remember you did go in to the rear of the car normally this is 100% fault i do appreciate you state he rolled back but i bet he won't say that in court.