What to expect - county court due to car collision

VickyRose_2

My husband is being taken to court tomorrow by the person who reversed into him one morning last May.
This girl is a neighbour of my parents (who I used to babysit for when she was a child - not exactly a relevant fact, but just shows why I am even more annoyed than I would otherwise be) and after the initial collision she jumped out of her car apologising, crying, asking if our children were in the car etc. My husband saw she was upset and said not to worry and we will exchange insurance details later via myself as I was still in touch with her at this point. I received a message not long after the incident saying she would call me that night after work, but would we please not contact our insurance.
By the time she called that evening she had changed her whole story saying that he had in fact reversed into her
Aside from being angry and upset about her lies, we now have to attend court tomorrow (at her request!!) and having never been before I have no idea what to expect. Can anybody give me any info about the process?


Our appointed solicitors took our respective statements months ago (that is to say, my husbands statement and her statement) they were supposed to exchange on a set date, however they sent their statement 3 weeks late, and when you put them side by side you can see that her statement is a direct response to every single point made in my husbands statement. Could this possibly get it thrown out - as how will she ever give a 'true' statement now? And then if they do give her the benefit of the doubt, there are no witnesses and it is one word against another. Both were reversing - my husband stopped at the top of the junction and waited upon seeing her reverse lights - she reversed off of her driveway, across a road and into the junction straight into the side of his vehicle all whilst he was sat stationary. To me it seems a no brainer - unless he can drive sideways it seems pretty obvious what happened. She also said in the beginning she had a witness, then 2 witnesses. Now none.
Sorry for the rambling, I basically just want a little assurance as to the process of the county court and what is likely to happen.


Thanks in advance if anyone has any advice

m0bov

How can she sue you? Why is your insurance not dealing with it? Its knock for knock unless you have a third party witness.

VickyRose_2

I have no idea - I really couldn't ever see it getting this far!!
As soon as she started lying, my husband asked his insurance company to take her to court and they said they wouldn't be able to as no witnesses / proof / evidence - all they had was the message she sent to me asking me not to report the accident to our insurance company and that wasn't enough apparently. in her statement there is nothing to suggest she has fabricated any false evidence or anything like that, it really just looks like it's her word against his, so unless she is doing this privately and paying a solicitor and not going through her insurance company I have no idea how it has got anywhere near this far...

Retrogamer

m0bov wrote: »

How can she sue you? Why is your insurance not dealing with it? Its knock for knock unless you have a third party witness.

As mentioned in the OP it shouldn't be knock for knock.
The third party drove into the side of her husbands car.
Since car's can't drive sideways into the back of someone's car, the other party should be found liable. Whether they will is for the court to decide now.

Hoof_Hearted

Let us know what happens.

Jay_Tee

The County Court is pretty informal, the one I went to all the parties were around a large table, the Judge just asked questions and came to her decision. It's not a daunting experience at all.

If you have any photographs of the damage to the vehicles I'd take those with you (they may have already been submitted) as one of the main pieces of evidence is going to be the location of the damage to each vehicle.

Marktheshark

You have filed a counter claim for the full loss you suffered ?

InsideInsurance

m0bov wrote: »

How can she sue you? Why is your insurance not dealing with it? Its knock for knock unless you have a third party witness.

Because she is claiming the OP is liable for an accident

The insurance should be dealing with it however litigation is always brought against the driver at the time. This is then passed to the insurer who is dealing with it and they respond on your behalf

Knock for knock hasnt existed in my professional career and not even sure if it was still used in my lifetime which is why it isnt knock for knock. Knock for knock was an interinsurance company agreement that each was simply settle their own insured's losses and not look to make recoveries from each other.

50/50 settlement is the legal equivalent of knock for knock where each party pays 50% of the others losses and is indeed the most common out of court settlement where there is no way of judging one version of events over the other.

If the OP is not claiming any damages then there is nothing their insurer can do but defend the claim, there is no proactive action that can be taken when you deny all liability unless you decide to conceed 50% to settle but if the TP doesnt accept then again the ball remains in their hands.

Small Track of the County Court is generally very informal, most cases occur in basically a meeting room however in some cases it may be in court based purely on what rooms are available. There isnt normally gowns/ wigs, no jury etc

patman99

You both turn-up to Court, the Judge looks at the evidence, realises that the claimant's car has reversed into the defendant's car. End of case. Claimant looses as the Judge isn't stupid and knows that cars don't travel sideways, so defendant cannot have 'hit' claimant's car.

VickyRose_2

Thanks everyone.


We turned up early, went through a metal detector and was scanned (like at airport security) then went to report to reception to sign in with the usher. We then waited until our barrister arrived and sat in a private meeting room with her to go over the case.
The opposition offered us a 50/50 to avoid proceeding into the court room, my husband declined.
We were called into the court about an hour later - the judge sat at the front behind wooden panelling and there was a witness box to his side. then two rows of wooden desks facing him. The claimant (the girl who hit my husbands car) gave evidence first then was cross examined by my husbands barrister. Then he took to the stand and was cross examined by opposing barrister. The girl is quite the convincing liar I'll give her that, and the judge took lunch to decide.
When we returned he said my husbands statement made more sense, was the most likely and he went in favour two thirds to one to my husband. Not the result we were hoping for but the judge seemed to think my husband should have beeped his horn to alert her of his whereabouts... so that's why it wasn't 100% win for us.
At the end of the day still happy to have this over with after 13 months of stress. They split the costs accordingly too - she pays two thirds damages and only receives one third of her excess back, we receive two thirds excess back and only pay one third damages. Seeing as the insurance company pay the damages it means we get some money back we never thought we'd see again with nothing further to pay back so not too bad only thing is he won't get his no claims back but we are hoping to negotiate something as judge ruled in his favour.


Thanks for the advice