traffic accident witness

DjangoUnchained

My sister in law was involved in a very minor traffic accident. She had no damage to her car and the third party had a bit of paint damage. (she says it was not her fault but sounds to me like a 50 50 blame thing)  About 2 weeks later the third party has suddenly produced a witness saying it was my SILs fault. Apparently they have signed a statement to that affect.
My SIL said that no witness was there at the time and the third party left the scene quickly after exchanging details. The insurance co say if it went to court they would most likely lose if there's a witness.
My SIL believes the witness is a shill and willing to perjure themselves and wants it to go to court. I'm of the opinion that she should just let it go and just accept her insurance premiums are going up anyway and move on with her life. 
What would you do?

facade

Let the insurance worry about it and move on.

Unless the third party is claiming £200K of medical bills and £50K of credit hire on a replacement vehicle the insurer will just fold and pay out rather than risk losing in court and paying costs too, now there is a witness supporting the third party account..

They don't care about whether your sister has the claim marked "at fault" or not, they only care about paying out the minimum amount, and the contract your sister has with them will have words to the effect of they are free to deal with third party claims how they like..

Aretnap

Ultimately your SiL's insurers have the right to settle the claim as they see fit - it's their money, not her's which they'll be handing over to the third party after all. So if she wants it to go to court all she can do is ask them nicely not to settle - she can't insist on it.

Even if the mysterious witness could be discounted, it's unlikely that her insurer would want to go to court with her telling a story which sort of makes it sound a bit like her fault and the other driver presumably telling a different story, unless there was some other hard evidence in her favour. The best that she could realistically hope for would be a 50/50 settlement, which in terms of the effect on her future premium is exactly the same as a 100% fault claim.

Basically based on what you've said she's on a hiding to nothing here. The singer she shrugs and gets on with her life the less stress she'll have all round.

Nobbie1967

As above, 50/50 or 100% her fault, it still goes down as an at fault claim so there’s little to gain from fighting it. Just leave it to the insurers.

DjangoUnchained

Thanks everyone,  it's what I thought,  will pass on your comments. 

Grey_Critic

Silly question but have you checked the vehicle registration on DVLA website. Could it be that it was not taxed/insured/MOTd hence their quick exit from the scene.

Years ago my SIL was hit by a car whilst parked. The driver did a quick exit minus their front number plate that had fallen off.

He suspected that the owner was local so had a drive around the area and found the car parked up. He the reported it to the Police and Insurers. The car involved was less than a year old but had been bought wih 6 months tax. That had expired prior to the bump. Police prosecuted for leaving scene of an accident etc and his insurance claimed against the other party.

In the days of the tax disc I was always told besides exchanging name & address always check the tax disc.