CCJ against me for an insurance claim

mgfvvc

There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding in a lot of the replies here. The claim is always served on the motorist. The insurance company should represent you and the policy always says that they have the right to run the case, as they are on the hook if the other side wins, but legally they are not a party to the case and can not be sued directly. This is why some of the legal documents come to you instead of the insurance company.

You should forward all legal documents and other correspondence to the insurance company at the time of the incident and cooperate with them and their solicitors. Don't get involved yourself, except as instructed by the insurers and their solicitors.

Ectophile

What mgfvvc has said is really important.

If you try to defend the case yourself, and lose, then you will be the one paying the bill from the claimant.  The insurance company will wash their hands of it.

If you pass the case onto your insurance company, and they lose, then they have to pay.  Because they are your insurance company.  That's the whole point of motor insurance.

ontheroad1970

sourcrates said:

Teme9 said:

eskbanker said:

I don't understand how you've received a CCJ after not hearing anything for six months, so worth starting by contacting the court and finding out everything you can about the case and why you weren't made aware of it, i.e. where the paperwork was sent, etc.

You obviously need to keep trying to make contact with the solicitors, who should be able to advise you on how to go about dealing with the CCJ.

Apologies for the mistake, just read the paperwork in more detail. It is a claim form.
It is from the solicitor trying to get £20,000 from me directly because my insurance company has rejected their claim for money so they're going for broke.  

You must ensure this gets dealt with, as strict time scales now apply.

Essentially allowing the Insurance company to "deal with it", will not stop you from being hit with a CCJ by default.


Now a claim form has been issued, you must deal with the matter, you should acknowledge service online, this gives you 28 days in total to lodge your defence to the claim.

At the same time inform the insurance company what has happened, do you have legal cover ?

Because if you do, now is the time to take advantage of it, if you don`t, then get advice from either a solicitor, or at "Legal Beagles" online.

The claimant has chosen to try to extract this money from you personally, rather than the insurance company, who most probably have dismissed their original claim, its your name on the court papers now, so you have to deal with it.

Hmmmmmm.  I wouldn't be stepping in before an insurance company's litigation team who is the one that will deal with this.  Muddying the waters will not be helpful.  I'd be taking a copy of everything and passing it on to the insurance company.  Too easy for errors to be made by the unwary.  I'm not sure this is the best advice. The Op shouldn't be making himself the point of call.  He should concentrate on getting the insurance co responsible to deal with it PDQ.

Teme9

I had send all paperwork to my insurance company as soon as I received them. They were slow to forward the paperwork to the Solicitor but a very helpful member had passed it onto solicitors yesterday. 

Speaking to the solicitors for the insurance company  today, they have advised I should not acknowledge the county court claim. They have been instructed and will deal with it on my behalf and reassured there is nothing for me to worry about. 

Teme9

Manxman_in_exile said:

So the court hasn't actually issued or served a claim on you yet?  Maybe we are all talking at cross purposes, but I'm not sure if you should be acknowledging a claim that you haven't yet received from the court?  (And as I've suggested in earlier posts I'm not sure you should be doing anything other than passing it all onto your insurer and letting them deal with it all for you anyway - unless they instruct you otherwise).

Who did you speak to at the court?  I'm afraid it's unlikely that they have any legal qualifications at all so I would not be confident that they could correctly advise you to do anything.  Did you explain this claim would be handed over to your insurer for them to handle?  

The only people I would ask for advice as to what to do is my insurance company.  That is one of the things you pay them - not court staff - for. 

But as I said earlier, maybe I'm mistaken and my view is wrong.

(Have you never received a Letter Before Action or a Letter Before Claim?  Are you sure that isn't what you've just received from the third party solicitors?  If you are a junior doctor (for example) have you been changing addresses so mail could go astray?  Did you get such a letter shortly after the accident?)

The court has processed the paperwork from solicitor and assigned a claim number - which I guess means they have issued it?

I spoke to most likely a call handler at the county court business centre who most likely gave the advice best as she could. I did mention that I would pass on to my insurer to handle. 

I've never received a letter before action or letter before claim. They did try to put forward a case of fault on me initially when the accident first happened in March which I just passed onto my insurance and had not heard anything more. 

Sandtree

sourcrates said:

Teme9 said:

eskbanker said:

I don't understand how you've received a CCJ after not hearing anything for six months, so worth starting by contacting the court and finding out everything you can about the case and why you weren't made aware of it, i.e. where the paperwork was sent, etc.

You obviously need to keep trying to make contact with the solicitors, who should be able to advise you on how to go about dealing with the CCJ.

Apologies for the mistake, just read the paperwork in more detail. It is a claim form.
It is from the solicitor trying to get £20,000 from me directly because my insurance company has rejected their claim for money so they're going for broke.  

You must ensure this gets dealt with, as strict time scales now apply.

Essentially allowing the Insurance company to "deal with it", will not stop you from being hit with a CCJ by default.


Now a claim form has been issued, you must deal with the matter, you should acknowledge service online, this gives you 28 days in total to lodge your defence to the claim.

At the same time inform the insurance company what has happened, do you have legal cover ?

Because if you do, now is the time to take advantage of it, if you don`t, then get advice from either a solicitor, or at "Legal Beagles" online.

The claimant has chosen to try to extract this money from you personally, rather than the insurance company, who most probably have dismissed their original claim, its your name on the court papers now, so you have to deal with it.

Absolute nonsense 

The OP is the party involved in the accident and therefore proceedings will almost always be issued against them. The OP's insurers at the time of the accident will deal with the matter in its entirety, the claim form simply needs to be sent to the relevant claims department.

By following the advice of acknowledging service and attempting to file a defence yourself you could prejudice your insurer's case and create a personal liability if by breaching the terms of the policy (which is to let your insurers deal) it ends up costing your insurers more... would have thought Board Guides should be better than on another post promoting criminal activity and on this one promoting a course of action that could cost the OP £20k  

Jumblebumble

sourcrates said:

Teme9 said:

eskbanker said:

I don't understand how you've received a CCJ after not hearing anything for six months, so worth starting by contacting the court and finding out everything you can about the case and why you weren't made aware of it, i.e. where the paperwork was sent, etc.

You obviously need to keep trying to make contact with the solicitors, who should be able to advise you on how to go about dealing with the CCJ.

Apologies for the mistake, just read the paperwork in more detail. It is a claim form.
It is from the solicitor trying to get £20,000 from me directly because my insurance company has rejected their claim for money so they're going for broke.  

You must ensure this gets dealt with, as strict time scales now apply.

Essentially allowing the Insurance company to "deal with it", will not stop you from being hit with a CCJ by default.


Now a claim form has been issued, you must deal with the matter, you should acknowledge service online, this gives you 28 days in total to lodge your defence to the claim.

At the same time inform the insurance company what has happened, do you have legal cover ?

Because if you do, now is the time to take advantage of it, if you don`t, then get advice from either a solicitor, or at "Legal Beagles" online.

The claimant has chosen to try to extract this money from you personally, rather than the insurance company, who most probably have dismissed their original claim, its your name on the court papers now, so you have to deal with it.

You clearly have no idea of how third party insurance works as if you were you would  be aware that the insurers do not want their insured interfering.
Please refrain from posting such irresponsible twaddle

ontheroad1970

No response from @sourcrates. As a board guide their opinion would be given more pathos.  

ciderboy2009

ontheroad1970 said:

No response from @sourcrates. As a board guide their opinion would be given more pathos.  

I'm shocked to see a board guide posting such factually incorrect information which could have got extremely expensive for the OP if they had followed the "advice".  Thankfully they didn't.

I thought it was common knowledge that you ALWAYS pass any paperwork relating to a claim to your insurers to deal with and if you tried to deal with it yourself then the insurers could refuse to indemnify you.

I would also suggest that the board guide looked up the differences between Specified and Unspecified claims - this is more than likely an Unspecified claim that is limited to £20k rather than a Specified claim for £20k.

sourcrates

The OP had changed insurance companies since the claim was made, and your right, I am not completely "Au fait" with how the insurance industry works, but I do know how court claims work, the OP`s original insurers were dragging their feet over the matter, and if they drag them long enough, the OP gets a judgement in default.

Apologies if my advice was incorrect, it was given in good faith, and was based on my knowledge of court claims, rather than insurance claims.

The “Board Guide” is pleased the OP has now got the correct advice.