Will the non existence of the witness statement affect my chances of winning my case?

Captain_Flack.

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

not in somecase's when you sign a whitness statement you sign it knowing your going to be called to court if needed especially when a judge wants there to clarify certain arguments and is key to the case. if this witness fails to attend the offered date the judge will more than likely adjourn the case and order the witness to come to court, failure to do so will incur him a fine for contempt of court, if he fails again to attend court he can picked up by police on a failure to appear warrant and be held in the cells and fined for it.


The same happened in a case my SIL had with the council, her witness was the lady in the flat opposite the broken stair well step my SIL went tumbling down the stairs and broke her ankle, depite several phone calls by the witness to the council to come and fix it they didn't (but 3 weeks after the claim went in they did) 2 years passed and the star witness had moved from the area entirely, the solicitor had her new address and passed it onto the courts, they wrote to her with a court date and she failed to attend, so the judge adjourned to a later date because she was an integral part to the claim, she also received the £50,00 travel costs cheque and cashed it, she then failed to attend the second one, judged fined her £150.00 for failing to appear contempt of court order, the case was again adjourned to a later date, judge made a new order to appear, she failed yet again to appear judge issued another fine £150.00 the third time she appeared but was funny about things and only confirmed her named etc and said no comment on the questions but because she attended they went off her statement anyway (which the can do as its a legal binding document), either way she had a arrest warrant on her for failure to pay the fines and spent 24 hours in a cell.


its not as clear cut as you want to think, if no one goes to court it get judged 50 50 on the merits of the case, the solicitors of the OP will be wanting the witness to go to court, and this is the likely course of action that will be taken if the judge deems that the witness must come before the courts to represent their statement.


the trick is if you don't want to be a witness don't sign a witness statement from the insurers, because if you do you can be in a spot of bother with the courts if you fail to attend a court date.

When witnesses indicate the won't attend a witness summons is issued. The arrest is only to secure their attendance and they are not fined.

If you sign a section 9 statement it's the defence who call you and not a judge.

Trebor16

spacey2012 wrote: »

It is a recent "trend" to try and exit roundabouts from the right hand lane.
You move to the left hand lane to exit a roundabout unless it has a correct blue sign stating "use both lanes"
This is because traffic in the nearside lane can proceed straight on or take the first exit.
If they are going straight on, you are going to have a crash.
If you are exiting roundabouts from the right hand lane, I am surprised this is the first bump you have had.

It's not a recent trend, it is something that I was taught when I was preparing for my driving test in 1979. This is what the Highway Code says:-

"
When taking an exit to the right or going full circle, unless signs or markings indicate otherwise

• signal right and approach in the right-hand lane
• keep to the right on the roundabout until you need to change lanes to exit the roundabout
• signal left after you have passed the exit before the one you want.

When taking any intermediate exit, unless signs or markings indicate otherwise

• select the appropriate lane on approach to and on the roundabout
• you should not normally need to signal on approach
• stay in this lane until you need to alter course to exit the roundabout
• signal left after you have passed the exit before the one you want.

When there are more than three lanes at the entrance to a roundabout, use the most appropriate lane on approach and through it."

Trebor16

spacey2012 wrote: »

It matters not if your exit has 30 lanes, you exit roundabouts from the left hand lane unless it has a sign instructing you otherwise.

That is simply not true and the Highway Code confirms your interpretation is incorrect.

londonTiger

I am surprised OP has a witness in their corner, you should not exit from 2nd line, if you do you should bear full responsibiliy for an collision that occurs.

I'm not going to be a traffic nazi and say you are completely wrong and a danger on the roads etc. Everyone makes mistakes when you're on a busy roundabout in an unfamilair area it can be very difficult to navigate your way around without a satnav.

As a general rule if you're taking the exit after the next, you should move to lane 1 before your exit. If you're moving from lane 2 directly to the exit you should stop and give priority to the vehicle in lane 1 to do what they want.

Lastly driving instructors can be bad drivers, just noticed a driver instructor car doing 40mph on a 30mph limehouse link in east london. (we were all doing 40). They're human just like us.

Lane1 car may have seen you indicating to turn in from lane 2 and though "!!!! it, i'm not going to wait for this idiot to turn in from the wrong place and hold me up, he can go in after me".. then !!!!!!. Accident. That's perfectly fine and I dont think the lane 1 car should be responsible for the collision. You are the party that moved lanes so you should check your hazards.

Captain_Flack.

londonTiger wrote: »

I am surprised OP has a witness in their corner, you should not exit from 2nd line, if you do you should bear full responsibiliy for an collision that occurs.

I'm not going to be a traffic nazi and say you are completely wrong and a danger on the roads etc. Everyone makes mistakes when you're on a busy roundabout in an unfamilair area it can be very difficult to navigate your way around without a satnav.

As a general rule if you're taking the exit after the next, you should move to lane 1 before your exit. If you're moving from lane 2 directly to the exit you should stop and give priority to the vehicle in lane 1 to do what they want.

Lastly driving instructors can be bad drivers, just noticed a driver instructor car doing 40mph on a 30mph limehouse link in east london. (we were all doing 40). They're human just like us.

As a general rule?

So that's not a must according to the Highway Code and linked to the rta.

Maybe that's how the island was marked up.

londonTiger

Captain_Flack. wrote: »

Maybe that's how the island was marked up.

If the exit was marked straight ahead or turn in for lane 2 then that's understandable. I am going by the assuemption that it's lane 1 straight ahead or exit and lane 2 straight ahead only.

rs65

londonTiger wrote: »

If you're moving from lane 2 directly to the exit you should stop and give priority to the vehicle in lane 1 to do what they want.

Stop? On a roundabout? I think you should continue round the roundabout until your exit is clear.

ps You need to read the OP's other threads to see the road markings in question.