CCJ from an 'incident'

noodles86

I have no idea if this is the right forum, but can't quite find anywhere else to put this!

Posting on behalf of my cousin who has received some county court letters.

Ok my cousin moved house in Early Jan 2013 & has just been passed on some post from previous address (lived at previous address oct 09-Jan 13). Two letters fr county court in regards to an incident he was involved in May '11.

To try and cut a long story short on the back story. May 2011 was driving on the motorway when pulled into middle lane from right hand lane and had to put the breaks on as pulled in as lorry in front had suddenly put theirs on. Car comes flying past on the right, hits the central reservation, spins and hits a milk tanker head on. Luckily the poor driver could get out and walk and claimed at the time (I was in the car so can verify!) they 'didn't know what happened'. Obviously the m-way was a mess so police were called & cleared the motorway and everyone gave their addresses as witnesses.

The driver phoned my cousin stating that they blamed my cousin for the accident for swerving in, so it went through the insurance. My cousin got rid of this car for a company car in May '12 so now doesn't have own car insurance.

My cousin has no idea on what the outcome of the above, he never bothered to find out 'as it won't affect him as he has company car' and wasn't notified. So this now brings us to the present. They have received the letters from a gentleman claiming damages to the tune of over £2000 in regards to the accident. He nor I have heard of this man. The second letter states that because my cousin never filed any papers that they must pay.

So what does he do now!? He never claimed liability for the first incident (however not knowing how the other claimant went well he may have been found liable). Oh and my cousin is just saying that they can't do anything as he has moved house but his pregnant girlfriend is worried sick that they're going to have the bailiffs at the door, so this is more for her than him.

Quentin

He needs to pass on the correspondence to the insurance company he had at the time to deal with, explaining that he just received them.

noodles86

Quentin wrote: »

He needs to pass on the correspondence to the insurance company he had at the time to deal with, explaining that he just received them.

Thank you so much

maninthestreet

So what was in the two letters from the County Court that you cousin chose to ignore???

noodles86

maninthestreet wrote: »

So what was in the two letters from the County Court that you cousin chose to ignore???

Well I'm not sure exactly.

But first one was saying something like

Mr xxxxx involved in accident May 2011 has put in £2000 for damages to vehicle. It was very brief. I remember it didn't even state what his vehicle even was.

The second saying that they have not had a response so he needs to pay the amount & costs.

I don't usually air dirty laundry but i'm close to both my cousin and his girlfriend and she is so worried that this was all I felt I can do whilst my cousin sticks his head in the sand. Just need to force him to phone the car ins as above advice.

fivetide

Yep. The insurance that was in force at the time should deal with it. Hope it works out.

Ectophile

It sounds like the first letter was the court summons, which he chose to ignore. Then the second was the judgement made against him in his absence, since he made no effort to turn up and defend himself.

Quentin

Ectophile wrote: »

It sounds like the first letter was the court summons, which he chose to ignore. Then the second was the judgement made against him in his absence, since he made no effort to turn up and defend himself.

You are probably correct, though when receiving a court claim over an insurance claim you don't turn up and defend yourself!

The insurer will sort this out and will be able to get the ccj set aside.

spacey2012

He needs to file a N244 form to the court stating the papers were incorrectly served as he had moved, this makes an application to set aside and removes if they failed to prove they searched for the correct address .
Once this is done his insurance may deal, but do not trust them to, they were probably aware of this and ignored it.
If he does not want bailiffs, I would get the N244 filed tonight.

Quentin

spacey2012 wrote: »

H
If he does not want bailiffs, I would get the N244 filed tonight.

Ignore spacey2012.

He has "form" when it comes to dishing out bad advice (in this authoritive manner) over matters like this:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4756441

The insurer will deal with all of this, but if you start trying to interfere by contacting the court yourself, then you run the risk of jeopardising the outcome.

noodles86

Ectophile wrote: »

It sounds like the first letter was the court summons, which he chose to ignore. Then the second was the judgement made against him in his absence, since he made no effort to turn up and defend himself.

Yes but remember he received both letters together he is choosing to ignore it after the judgement. Not that that makes it any better, just saying.