Scared and worried - received County Court Money Claim - PLEASE HELP!

Gerard55

Hi there,

I am unsure what to do so please bear with my ignorance in legal matters.

I just received a country court money claims form against me for the value of approx £4,000 (comprising of vehicle repairs, bi-lateral hire, recovery and towing)

This is from a private claimaint for "damages for negligence and or breach of statutory duty arising out of an accident which occured on xx April 2018"

Context:
Back in April 2018, I was involved in a car accident. I sustained back and neck injuries.
My insurers advised I go with a legal firm to claim for injury.
A lot of back and forth between April 2018 and now (horrendous legal firm)
We offered part 36 but did not get any response
Have had to wait for medical to get back to me due to COVID
Still ongoing... it is now 31st July 2021

Now I'm being pursued privately it seems?
What do I do?

Kind regards

neilmcl

Speak to your insurer and forward all correspondence. 

Gerard55

@neilmcleven though this car accident occurred more than 3 years ago? 

I am very worried 

Gerard55

neilmcl said:

Speak to your insurer and forward all correspondence. 

@neilmcl even though this car accident occurred more than 3 years ago? 

I am very worried 

Aretnap

Gerard55 said:

neilmcl said:

Speak to your insurer and forward all correspondence. 

@neilmcl even though this car accident occurred more than 3 years ago? 

I am very worried 

Yes, 3 years is quite a long time for these things to get settled, but not impossibly long. Your insurer (the one you were with at the time of the accident) remains responsible for all your liabilities that result from the accident, however long it takes for them to be settled (in theory some personal injury claims could take decades). Contact your insurer ASAP and take it from there. 

Gerard55

0Aretnap said:

Gerard55 said:

neilmcl said:

Speak to your insurer and forward all correspondence. 

@neilmcl even though this car accident occurred more than 3 years ago? 

I am very worried 

Yes, 3 years is quite a long time for these things to get settled, but not impossibly long. Your insurer (the one you were with at the time of the accident) remains responsible for all your liabilities that result from the accident, however long it takes for them to be settled (in theory some personal injury claims could take decades). Contact your insurer ASAP and take it from there. 

I'm so worried that they will ignore me (was with General Accident and they have terrible reviews...) Plus, according to the county court papers, I have 14 days to respond....

Coupon-mad

You need to acknowledge the claim online and that extends the time to defend to 28 days plus 5 days for service of that claim form. 

The parking fines sub board deals with court claims every day and whilst the regulars there can’t assist you about this claim because it’s not a PCN, you can read the 2nd post of the NEWBIES thread at the top, where I’ve posted a page by page screenshot link showing how to do the acknowledgement online to buy more time. You don’t get a reply and have to crack on with a defence within the month but it buys you the time you need.

Aretnap

Gerard55 said:

0Aretnap said:

Gerard55 said:

neilmcl said:

Speak to your insurer and forward all correspondence. 

@neilmcl even though this car accident occurred more than 3 years ago? 

I am very worried 

Yes, 3 years is quite a long time for these things to get settled, but not impossibly long. Your insurer (the one you were with at the time of the accident) remains responsible for all your liabilities that result from the accident, however long it takes for them to be settled (in theory some personal injury claims could take decades). Contact your insurer ASAP and take it from there. 

I'm so worried that they will ignore me (was with General Accident and they have terrible reviews...) Plus, according to the county court papers, I have 14 days to respond....

They won't ignore you. And even if they do, it will just mean that they land themselves with a bill. If a county court judgement did get made against you, the law specifically requires your insurance company to pay it on your behalf. (Unless they have already taken steps to void the policy, which they can only do in very limited circumstances, such as if you lied about something on the application form).

Do not attempt to deal with the claim yourself or enter a defence without speaking to your insurance company first. 

Manxman_in_exile

Gerard55 said:

...
Back in April 2018, I was involved in a car accident. I sustained back and neck injuries.
My insurers advised I go with a legal firm to claim for injury.
...

Now I'm being pursued privately it seems?
What do I do?

Simple.  Contact your insurer at the time (you already advised them of the accident back in 2018 so you must have some sort of claim or accident reference number from them) and tell them you have now received a claim from the third party and ask them what they want you to do.  They will almost certainly tell you to do nothing except pass all correspondence etc that you have received onto them.

Do it as soon as you can.  As others have said, they can't ignore you and you need to do nothing except pass everything onto them.

Aretnap

To give you some more information about why you've received this claim form, and why it's not particularly unusual or anything to get too stressed about...

Someone (the other driver, his insurer and/or his accident management company) is blaming you for the accident and trying to claim from your insurance for his repairs, car hire etc. For whatever reason you insurer has not paid what they're asking for - maybe they're still arguing over who is to blame, maybe they're disputing the cost of the repairs, or maybe the overworked claims department is just being slow.

It doesn't matter hugely what the reason is - if they can't come to an agreement with your insurance company they only way to frce your insurance company to pay is via a court claim.

Now any court claim has to be made against you personally - you are the one who (they are claiming) is to blame for the accident, so ultimately you are the person who (they are claiming) is liable. They can't take your insurance company to court directly because nobody is claiming that your insurance company damaged the other guy's car. Instead they take you to court, and you have to ask your insurance company to deal with the claim on your behalf, as they are bound to do by your contract with them.

Rest assured that (1) it's unlikely that it will actually get as far as a courtroom and (2) even if it does, your insurance company will still be the ones who end up putting their hands in their pockets at the end of the day, not you personally.

So you see that while it's doubtless a shock to get a letter like this, in reality it's a common part of the process of a disputed claim, or a claim that is dragging on. It's not something to be sick with worry about. Just pass the details on to your insurer and let them worry about it. You pay them good money precisely so that when things like this happen it's your insurer's problem, not yours.

Coupon-mad

You cannot not respond to a county court claim form.  The OP must acknowledge it to buy more time  (then defend within 28 days plus 5) or he/she will get a CCJ.

Certainly ask the insurer what they want you do do but DO NOT fail to follow your deadlines to acknowledge and then defend.