Screwed by Insurance Solicitior/HCE & William Hill

catalepticstate

Hi,
This post may be a long one, I want to give as much detail as possible. I really need some help I am verging on depression and I really don't know what to do.

Back in November 2014 I had an accident with a driver who went into the back of my car. The impact flung me forward. I was stationary at a set of traffic lights near Kings Cross station in London.

The lady was checking her emails and she admitted it was her fault. I told her not to do it again and I thought no harm was done because I could only see a scratch on my car near the number plate area. It was deep but not enough to tell my insurance company or take her details.

I then drove away as did she, I memorised her number plate and around 10 minutes later I felt a pinch on the back of my neck. As I got closer to home I had to stop at a services as the pinch became a dull warm feeling ache and a noise on the underside of my car made a noise like something came apart. I feared the bumper had come off.

Anyway I decided it was enough of an issue to call my insurance company and tell them about it. They asked if I was injured and I said no, but I have a dull pain at the back of my neck, to which they sent me over to their personal injury claims department to who I told the whole story.

The car was picked up and I had a courtesy car given to me. They lady who hit into the back of my car was driving a company car belonging to William Hill PLC.

They admitted liability and had the car repaired. But the injury claim dragged till around the end of 2015 when my new Insurance supplied solicitor said they wanted a new statement from me because they had taken over the account from the previous solicitors who were dealing with it.

So I gave them a new statement from what I could remember and I they passed that on to the solicitors of William Hill PLC who refused to accept it because there were a couple of inconsistencies in the statement. Originally I classed the impact as small, but enough to push me forward.

But in my new statement I said it was a moderate impact because it pushed me forward out of my seat.
They also said the damage to my car only cost £480 odd to fix and does not fit in with a moderate force impact.

My new solicitors told me what William Hill had said and they said you need to provide more detail, so another statement was written. Anyway what ended up happening is my solicitor saying sorry we do not think you can win this case so we are not going to represent you in court you will have to represent yourself or seek other council.

The solicitor said that the other party has found you to be dishonest and if it went to court and the judge found you the same you would have to pay the court costs. I was shocked and confused. I did not know what to do, I cannot afford to hire a solicitor so I said look I need to clear my name and I will go to court.

Perhaps the wrong thing to do, but I was genuinely affected by the accident. I felt I had been wronged and that William Hill were trying to use their bullying tactics to put pressure on me.

So a date was given, but I by that time had got married, moved out of my family home and was oblivious to the postal correspondence (my mother and I stopped talking). For the date the court case was set I was out of town for work for three days.

I went to collect my post a few weeks after the court date and I saw the letters from the solicitor and the court.

I called the number to ask what I could do about it but it was too late they wanted me to pay High Court Enforcement Group Limited (HCE) /William Hill PLC £8,000 for a list of charges including letters and telephones calls at a cost of £30 to £200 amongst other things. I felt my legs give way from under me.
I told HCE I cannot afford that and sent them an income/outgoing form filled in with my debts and payday loans I've had to take out. - YES Payday loans! This is another sad story.

I don't get paid very much for what I do and my job takes up a lot of hours of my day, I wish I had seen this all a lot sooner.

Anyway I asked a few people I knew what to do, unfortunately I do not know any solicitors or claims handlers. They suggested contacting HCE and giving an amount of money you could afford to pay.

So this is what I did, I said I could only afford £20 a month and they said we don't believe you and they asked for an income and expenditure form to be filled in. (Which I had already given them previously)

Anyway they keep sending bailiffs to my mum's address and now they want another £400 for that too. So as I am free today I contacted them and they said you have to put it in writing and and we will send it to our client William Hill to see if they will accept it, so I said £100 a month. Which I may not be able to afford but I am trying to find a new job and a secondary job.

I await to hear if they accept the £100, I seriously do not know what's going to happen, since moving out of my family home I have had to sell things I own to have a bit of money at the end of the month because I do not want to go back to Payday loans.

Does anyone have any advice for me and has anyone successfully had the payment reduced?

dacouch

Hopefully Jamie or Onan may be able to advise you on the legal aspect of your actual claim.

With regard to dealing with HCE try posting on either of these threads

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=76

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=136

As they would be best placed on how to deal with HCE (They're very helpful)

catalepticstate

Thanks dacouch

OnanTheBarbarian

What has happened on the court case has happened and I would say you are unlikely to succeed in reversing the process/ getting the judgment set aside. SO I would say you are lumped with the debt that has arisen from this due to not informing the court of change of address details etc and the finding of fundamental dishonesty.

Due to your circumstances you may be best looking at getting a debt relief order.

Some info here on how to go about this

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/debt-solutions/debt-relief-orders/

Good luck

[Deleted User]

If the OP has little in the way of assets etc anyway perhaps bankruptcy would be an option?

I had an issue where the court wrote to me but the letter arrived after the court date (nearly ripped in half and partially illegible due to water damage) so I wrote back explaining the situation and a new date was set. The other party didn't bother to turn up on the new date so I won pretty much by default.

I suppose the difference here is that by not advising the court of the OP's change of address, he make himself liable for missing the hearing. Presumably he was planning to represent himself.