Child on bike damaged my car. Advice

antrobus

KerrBearrxo wrote: »

I have to disagree with the above. This is purely based on me watching Judge Judy episodes though where the parent had to pay for damages their children did to the suing party. I'm not a lawyer or anything though so obviously it's not set in stone I just always assumed from good old Judge Judy that was the case. Lmao.

US law is very different to UK law in this regard. Many states in the USA have passed laws making parents liable for their children's wrongdoings. In the UK the old common law rules apply.

magpiecottage

antrobus wrote: »

US law is very different to UK law in this regard.

I suppose if the child had ridden on the wrong side of road like they do in the US the accident would never have occurred!

Haza

lisyloo wrote: »

What evidence to you gave haza?
Do you gave any evidence that the child actually did it? I.e, witnesses, photos.
Do you gave any evidence of the surroundings? E.g. Picture of narrow street with dozens of parked cars
Are there open spaces near by?
Do you have any legal advice on your home inrsurance where you could cal, a solicitor?

I am not a lawyer so you do need legal advice on whether your evidence reaches the bar for negligence.
Personally I think you should win, but I don't make the rules and that's what is important here.

I was in the car when it happened. The car was stationery. The parent stopped on their bike the child did not. It happened in a private car park. I have photos of the area and damages to car and bike.
Nothing leads to direct neglect only that they were both clearly in a hurry to get to the gym class they were late for. Only footage I have is from a dashcam on the front of my car so only recorded the collision noise and the fact that I was stationery. I'm still looking into it legally but the law does not seem to be on the side of any car vs. bike incident. The parent has made a clear stance not to pay anything or look into their own insurance, which I offered to share any excess, so I take that as someone with very low moral values.

huckster

The legal position is that you cannot hold a child responsible for negligent behaviour like this. But you might have a legal case to be made against the parent of the child for their lack of supervision of their child. They allowed their child to ride a bike near parked cars, while they were supervising. The child damaged the car and they refused to accept any liability for the damage caused.

Suggest you look at cases regarding parental supervision of children, where the lack of supervision leads to liability to a third party.

Then send a letter warning that if necessary you will pursue the matter issuing a court claim against them.

magpiecottage

So if you go to court, you have evidence of an accident, but not that it was with the child. That makes it difficult to prove it was more likely than not, and not merely equally likely that the child caused it.

Then, depending on the capabilities (and to some extent the age) of the child, you have to prove either that the child was capable of understanding that they were acting negligently OR that the parents ought to have had sufficient control over the child to prevent the accident happening.

It is also worth bearing in mind that the parents are likely have house contents insurance (it generally comes higher on people's priorities than children's extra-curricular activities). Such cover does normally include third party liability for push bikes (provided they are not being raced) but the insurer is also likely to fight such a claim - and will have a better legal knowledge than you do.

Frozen_up_north

A friend who runs his own small business has had great success with filling out a small claims court application form, copying it and sending the copy to the person who wouldn't pay him - giving them 14 days to pay or he will see them in court.

He says that in most cases he gets paid without needing to go to court... However, he's not dealing with claims against children on bikes.

antrobus

huckster wrote: »

The legal position is that you cannot hold a child responsible for negligent behaviour like this....

Yes you can.

Depends on how old the child is. But 10 is the age of criminal responsibility in England & Wales, so you could certainly sue a 12 year old. The problem is that children tend not to have any money. So it's not worth suing them. Hence you go after the parents if you can.

http://www.inbrief.co.uk/child-law/child-accidents-compensation-liability.htm

lisyloo

Have you checked yet if you have free legal advice or legal cover on your home insurance?

gadz777

Hi Haza

I'm in a similar situation to yourself. My car was parked in an off street parking when a kid rode his bicycle directly into the rear costing just under £1700 to repair. It is a fairly expensive vehicle (1 year old) and required bodywork, paintwork and a few parts replaced.

The child was being watched by a friend of the parent when he took another child's bike which was lying on the pavement, and rode 'like a madman' (according to witnesses), then slammed straight into the rear of my vehicle.

When the parent was brought out, they were shown the damage and I explained that I will get an estimate and come resolve it with them - to which they agreed and left. When I received the estimate, that's when the tune changed and after a few days refused to even acknowledge that their son caused the damage - bearing in mind we had two witnesses.

Anyways, to cut a long story short, I tried being the nicest guy to resolve but ended up filing a Small claims court case against the mom. This ultimately failed as the Judge found that it was not the mothers negligence that caused the accident. And technically, as she was named as the defendant (I didn't know you could sue a minor), she didn't cause the damage or her actions did not result in the damage being caused.

So essentially, it was struck off (just today), because of this technicality. The Judge was not helpful at all in giving advice on how to proceed. When I asked if the wrong person was named as the defendant, he just repeated his finding. I thought small claims court was to remove these minor technicalities out of the process, but I was wrong.

So I will be seeking legal advice on how to move forward, because I feel the same as you i.e. Why should I pay a higher premium for the next few years. Over 9 years NCD etc. I'd recommend you do the same.

From what I've read on the Citizens Advice Bureau says that you should name the child as the defendant. They go on to say that if successful, that if the child is under 16 then you have to wait until they work to get paid....
Search for 'Citizensadvice young people and the law'
Then check out the Negligence section.

Good luck with your case and if I have any updates on mine, I'll be sure to drop an update here.