Small claims letter

spacey2012

The just give it to your insurance and forget about it is very old advice.
Many will just kick it ion the long grass and happily let you get a CCJ.
You should make sure they have deadline plan with you where they communicate very clearly informing you of what they are doing about this.
Note all deadlines such as 14 days to acknowledge and in the event of the insurance ignoring you select defend the claim on-line giving you more time to file a defence.
If they still will not play ball, you have to file a defence adding the insurance as joint defendant .
This wakes them straight up from the silly games they play.

It is YOUR name on this CCJ not your insurance companies.
By all means let them deal, but if they waiver from the strict communication plan agreed of keeping you in the loop, then make your own defence plan.

We are in a new age with insurance companies who appear to have sewn themselves together in to one nice little cartel.
Be-careful, your name is on the papers.

spacey2012

Quentin wrote: »

You should not contact the court at all over this.

Leave it with your insurer to deal with.

(If this does end up in court this will be months from now)

If no defence is filed, there will be no court to end up in, he will receive a default undefended judgement ruling through the post.

Quentin

spacey2012 wrote: »

If no defence is filed, there will be no court to end up in, he will receive a default undefended judgement ruling through the post.

Not neccessarily. If the claim is settled between the insurers no defence is necessary.

Nevertheless the op should not contact the court at all. If there is an issue in future by contacting the court now this could jeopardise getting any judgement set aside.

It is the insurer who should deal with this. They will be the ones paying out if necessary, and any defence the op were to submit could also jeopardise the outcome of the case.

spacey2012

Yes it is and they should, but if they dont, the OP gets a CCJ and if it was sent to the right address there is very little in the way of options available to set it aside.
The days were you can just trust your insurance are over.
The courts will not accept the "my insurance should have done it" line.

As said above, a very clear plan of communication with the insurance with deadlines where by they must communicate, this must be checked against the claim on line and any failure to act and the defendant must act themselves or they will get a CCJ for the amount claimed against them by default through the post.
If they fail to act the defendant must and can add the insurance in as a defendant, they can like it or lump it, they can jump up and down all they like huffing and puffing, but the district judge will decide who pays what and when.

If they follow the communication plan all well and good, but if they do not and the OP just ignores it, the outcome will be a CCJ in their name and possibly Bailiffs attending the property.
We have seen one only last week where they just left it to the insurance and a live CCJ landed straight on their doormat.
The days were you "trust" insurance companies are over.

arcon5

If a claim is submitted then op should of course act if her insurers are not. Doing so would be reckless.

SLITHER99

This is exactly the advice I need, thanks guys.

How would I go about adding my insurers as a co-defendant? Can I do this even if I send the original copies back to my insurer? I have digital and photocopies of all the forms so I can return these to the court if my insurer drops the ball.

I take it if I have 14 days to respond, would a reasonable communication timeline be if the insurer hasn't responded by day 10, I should add them as a co-defendant and prepare the defense myself?

Sadly, my insurer have not given me any confidence that they will be reliable or cogent in this matter. Hence, I am loathe to place my trust in them fully. Ergo the core reason for my post. I'm confident I can avoid the CCJ as if my insurer drops the ball, I have enough available on my credit card to cover the entire cost should the judge rule against me (should it get to court). This would at least avoid the CCJ if there is a 30 day limit.

Quentin

When you took out your policy you will have agreed to the conditions which you will break if you defend this yourself.

Your insurer would then have a get out from paying the claim.

Handing the matter on to your insurer means that they pay everything if you lose the dispute. If they !!!! up then as long as you have stuck to the policy conditions they will have to put matters right.

Do read your policy before contacting the court. There is a lot of scaremongering in the "advice" you are being given to go it alone and contact the court!

SLITHER99

I shall certainly play by my insurers bidding for now. However, if it seems apparent that they are dropping the ball, they will force my hand to act. Given their performance so far, I have very little confidence in them, especially considering the horror stories about them through simple and recent Google results.

I hear you though. I will play everything by them first and foremost. But I cannot run the risk of CCJ for any reason!

My insurer will already have a customer complaint once this has been done.

SLITHER99

Just an update: It seems my insurer are settling without prejudice as they've decided I'm at fault. Why they couldn't have decided this 10 months ago I'll never know, but at least there's no risk of a CCJ now and it's all done with.

Today I learned that if you have an accident on a roundabout, the advice is to ensure that the damage happens on the left side of your vehicle or directly head on. OK this may make injuries more likely. However, in the case of a motorist who wasn't paying attention, do not take evasive action to minimize risk of injury or else you'll be fully liable. Make the accident a bad as possible to avoid being in the wrong.

Great thing, UK law!

Prothet_of_Doom

SLITHER99 wrote: »

However this does seem a bit extreme for a car accident doesn't it?

Secondly if this goes to court and for whatever reason the judge abandons all reason and sense and judges against me, doesn't that land me with a CCJ?

Are my fears justified? Is this just a scare tactic that they won't actually go through with at the end of the day?

I find it incredible that a poxy car accident for £3k worth of car all in could possibly stand to devastate my credit record!

No offence, but you are a little confused.

You take the Court Summons, and you send it to you insurance company, who will decide if they want to settle, fight it, or raise a counter claim.

In my case, they raised a counter claim, and it went to court. This is the judge's office. There was me, a judge, the other guy and 2 solicitors - one provided by each insurance company.

I won, but had I lost, my insurance company would have had to pay up. His insurance company paid the full amount the next day, and 2 weeks later I got my excess, plus interest of £3:39 back.

Why do you think it has anything to do with your credit rating ? That's why you have insurance ? You have told them ?