Vehicle accident in Jan 2017, I'm now being taken to court?

themothy

Hello, first time poster and hopefully this is in the right place. Would be grateful some help here as I'm in a situation that is causing me stress and I hope others who might have faced something similar can give some advice.
I am being threatened with being taken to County Court by Strata Solicitors for a vehicle accident in Jan 2017 which I have always felt was not my fault but which the insurance companies did not side with me and as far I knew had dealt with it. I'll break it down into the accident that occurred (which might be irrelevant since insurers didn't side with me), and what the situation is now.

The incident:
I was in a private road coming out from a gym leading onto a side road which has 3 lanes 15 yards from a set of traffic lights at a junction. The leftmost lane of the side road turns left, the middle/right lanes turn right. The private road I came off has no give way markers but I understand the main road has right of way.
The left lane that day had heavy traffic due to an accident further ahead (we're talking cars moving forward a few yards once a minute maybe), whereas the middle and right lane are relatively clear. I want to go right at the end of the main road so wanted to cut across the stationery vehicles on the left lane and go into the middle or right lanes. What happened was that I had been signalling right and waiting for about two minutes waiting for an opportunity to get into the middle/right lanes, and eventually a HGV moved up and left a decent sized gap in front of the next vehicle. The gap wasn't big enough to go through entirely, but I instead poked the nose of the car out into this gap assuming the HGV driver had seem me signalling/waiting, seem me edge out, and was going to let me go into the middle/right lane as soon the car in front of him moved a bit further forward. I was there for about 6-7 seconds at least, completely stationery, then suddenly the HGV driver moved forward slowly into my car, denting the front driver side wing as it took him a second to stop. I have no idea why he wanted to move forward slightly as the traffic lights for his lane were red and he wouldn't be going anywhere for a good 5-10 minutes anyway and should've just let me out, but he was a nice chap when I spoke to him and explained he couldn't visible see me due to the height of his vehicle and the angle of where I was when I was in front of him.
I understand he had right of way and that what I was doing was effectively forcing my way out (this has to be done though in busy areas, especially in London), but I was there for a good while and not moving, and whilst he may not have seen me I suspect he wasn't paying attention to the road before he moved forward. I don't really understand where the line is drawn when it comes to situations like this since if you're edged forward out of a give way to cut across a give way then it seems like someone can just drive into you and it's still your fault?
The HGV suffered no visible damage because it had moved into my car quite slowly, whereas I had some minor dents above my driver side wheel. Fair enough if everyone sides with the HGV on this though.

The situation now
The insurance company at the time, Swiftcover, dealt with the claim because as I felt the accident wasn't my fault I wanted them to recover costs. I then received an email from Swiftcover's claim department stating that they couldn't side with me after following up with the HGV's insurers due to the facts and evidence provided, this was around May 2017. That was it as far as I was concerned, I paid my excess and they were handling it. I switch to a different insurer in 2018 (Churchill).
Then out of nowhere 3 months ago I got a letter from a Solicitors firm asking for my insurance details relating to this incident and stating this was a statutory requirement for me to provide. I provided that and the email from Swiftcover stating they weren't going to side with me (was this a mistake?). Now on 27 December I got a letter from them saying they were going to take me to court for fees and repairs relating to this incident which total £2k including things like "loss of standing charge (a daily charge for when vehicle is off the road, this for 2 days)" of £636.
I've checked the repair paperwork this solicitors provided and the repair "estimate" is dated 8th November 2018, which suggests the vehicle hasn't been repaired yet and the estimate has only recently been obtained. I find this baffling, the HGV appeared to have no damage and they waited nearly 2 years to get an estimate for a repair?
Anyway, the solicitors are now pursuing me because my previous insurers have not responded to the claim made by the solicitors, and are threatening to take me to court if they don't get this £2k recovered. I really can't afford to pay £2k and this entire process is very strange to me, I paid my excess and my premiums increased as a result of the claim I made and it should have been dealt with by them.
With my current insurance (Churchill) I do have legal cover, but I'm wary of using it because I don't know what the risks are (e.g. if Churchill lawyers suggest I go to court, I lose for whatever technicality reasons, do I then pay fees etc?). Would they take a case like this as it doesn't relate to them? I haven't tried speaking to my previous insurers.
Does anyone have any advice for what options I should consider? Are the solicitors trying to bully me/threaten me when I'm not liable, or am I and there's a real risk this goes to court?
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

wgl2014

Pass everything to your insurers at the time of the collision.

jimbo6977

dig out your 2017 swiftcover paperwork/emails to get the claim number etc and pass everything you've received to swiftcover. ask swiftcover to confirm receipt. if you receive anything else, repeat the above. and relax. happy new year.

AdrianC

themothy wrote: »

I am being threatened with being taken to County Court by Strata Solicitors for a vehicle accident in Jan 2017 which I have always felt was not my fault but which the insurance companies did not side with me and as far I knew had dealt with it.

So you were found to be at fault?
Then simply pass this paperwork to the insurers who paid. It's part of the claim.

I want to go right at the end of the main road so wanted to cut across the stationery vehicles on the left lane and go into the middle or right lanes. What happened was that I had been signalling right and waiting for about two minutes waiting for an opportunity to get into the middle/right lanes, and eventually a HGV moved up and left a decent sized gap in front of the next vehicle. The gap wasn't big enough to go through entirely, but I instead poked the nose of the car out into this gap assuming the HGV driver had seem me signalling/waiting, seem me edge out, and was going to let me go into the middle/right lane as soon the car in front of him moved a bit further forward. I was there for about 6-7 seconds at least, completely stationery, then suddenly the HGV driver moved forward slowly into my car, denting the front driver side wing as it took him a second to stop.
...he ... explained he couldn't visible see me due to the height of his vehicle and the angle of where I was when I was in front of him.

I don't really understand where the line is drawn when it comes to situations like this since if you're edged forward out of a give way to cut across a give way then it seems like someone can just drive into you and it's still your fault?

So you were trying to come out of a junction into stop-start traffic, with priority against you. You tried to fit into a gap that wasn't really there, tight to the front of a much higher vehicle. You failed to take account of that vehicle's driver's sightlines... and he pulled forward, not knowing you were there.

How is that anything but your fault?

As for why he pulled forward - it's the same reason he couldn't see you - his higher, straighter-to-traffic sightline meant that he could see the traffic ahead moving when you couldn't. Not that it matters when it comes to the claim. He was simply moving into space he had every reason to believe was empty.

Can I guess that you were a fairly new or relatively inexperienced driver at the time?

chrisw

Yep, pass everything to your insurer at the time. You will not be taken to court, your insurers will take it over from you, although they may ask you to give evidence if necessary.

The court thing is just a threat to get things moving, insurers usually settle before court and from your description it sounds pretty clear cut that you were at fault anyway.

General_Applause

Why do people think that just by simply indicating that they automatically gain priority, right of way, visibility and absolution of any blame for their actions?

Aylesbury_Duck

It doesn't matter whose fault you think it was (it was yours in my opinion but that's also irrelevant). Just pass all correspondence to your insurer at the time and get them to deal with it.

d0nkeyk0ng

As pointed out, forward everything to your insurance company at the time of the accident. They will deal with everything.


For future reference, here's a pic of the blindspots of a HGV:

Your vehicle may have been mostly or entirely within the blindspot area of the HGV. It probably left a gap because the car in front would have disappeared within the blindspot if the driver edged too far forward.

System

You were entirely 100% at fault. The HGV driver left that gap so he could see the rear lights of the vehicle in front and if it broke down, could manoeuvre around it as he was taught to do in his driving lessons. You drove the front of your vehicle into that spot which meant your entire vehicle was in the blind spot of the HGV. The driver could have done the correct all round checks before moving off and still wouldn't have seen you because of the position you put yourself in. Other than getting out of the driver's seat and getting out of the vehicle and walking around the cab to check there was nothing he could do and even that doesn't guarantee someone wouldn't have done what you did by the time he got back in and set off again.

In short you deliberately drove your car into a position where the lorry driver couldn't see it at all.

As you've been advised, contact Swiftcover who were your insurers at the time and send everything to them. As a claimant has up to 3 years to put in a claim your situation will not be unique and they'll be used to handling claims from former customers.

Aretnap

This is reasonably common and not something that you should get stressed about.

Basically Swiftcover haven't paid, either because they're disputing some aspect of the claim (perhaps the amount if they've accepted liability) or else because the overworked claims department is just being slow. So the third party insurers are threatening court action, either to settle the dispute, or just to hurry them up.

Any court claim would be made against you personally as you're the one who (allegedly) caused the accident so ultimately liability lies with you. They can't take your insurer to court directly as they're not claiming that Swiftcover damaged the HGV. Instead you have to ask Swiftcover to deal with the claim on your behalf in accordance with your policy.

As advised forward all correspondence to Swiftcover and chase them up to make sure they receive it and are dealing with it. It probably won't get as far as an actual court case, but if it does rest assured that it will still be Swiftcover who end up putting their hands in your pockets, not you personally.

This is nothing to do with your current insurers, it's your insurers at the time of the incident you need to deal with.

For future reference legal expenses cover has nothing to do with paying your legal costs in the event that someone sues you over a car accident - that is already covered as part of the standard terms of any car insurance policy. Instead it's to cover your legal costs should you need to make a claim against someone else - for example of you are injured in a car accident and wish to make a claim against the other driver and his insurers.

themothy

Thanks for the advice everyone, this is a big relief.

The accident was a lesson in itself and reading what everyone here has said I accept the blame for it. The HGV driver leaving a gap was my downfall as I assumed he had seen me waiting patiently for someone to let me exit - I fully understand his blind spot because he let me into the HGV just to see his point of view, so at the time of driving forward I know he couldn't see me at that specific moment.