County Court Money Claim

Melvin2018

Hi all, 

Just looking for a bit of advice as I’ve come up against a strange situation. I had a very minor accident last year. We exchanged details at the scene and the other driver verbally admitted fault. The other driver was very cooperative but we had no witnesses or camera footage so essentially the case is still open as neither of us has accepted fault. Recently the claim was passed from my insurance company to a solicitor who advised me to accept 50/50 liability which I did. I have since not heard anything from said solicitor despite chasing for information several times. I presumed it was being dealt with. 

I have today received a county court money claim against me from the other driver herself, not from any solicitor or insurance company acting on her behalf. It is also addressed to me personally. Now, I thought this is exactly what I pay insurance for so I immediately called my insurance company who were no help. Said it’s the solicitor’s responsibility who they don’t work with any more. I explained I can’t get in touch with them and they told me to try again tomorrow. 

I then decided to call the other driver as I still had her details. She assured me that she has never made a claim, and urged me to contact the police as it is a fraudulent claim. She has written me confirmation that she did not make the claim against me. She also told me they had written her car off and she has already had a payout from her insurance company so I’m not sure why I am being changed for ‘damages’ and ‘hire car’ charges within this claim. It just seems like it’s not legit. The claim is real as I logged on via the gov.com money claims website and can see the claim has been made.  

There is a solicitors mentioned on the claim to ‘make payments to’ but the claimant is listed as the driver herself. 

My question is, what do I do next? Do I alert the money claims department? Do I get in touch with the solicitors listed on the claim to tell them the claimant has been made fraudulently? Do I try my insurers again? Do I alert the police of a scam? I’m a bit lost and quite stressed about the situation, would really appreciate some advice. Thank you. 

Brie

I agree - alert the police to the situation and then pop it all back to your own insurance company.  It's what they are supposed to deal with if it's legit so let them take the hassle on the off chance it isn't.

DullGreyGuy

Technically a claim is You -v- TP, in practice it's your insurers (actually the 2nd party but rarely referred to as such) -v- the TP insurer. 

The law, both primary legislation and common law, says that when you claim on your insurance your insurer inherits your rights to sue the TP... they step into your shoes via a process known as subrogation. They can issue in the TP's name having settled their claim. 

Most insurers divide claims into 2 or more sections, the first is your basic call centre agent, they field the majority of calls and have the lowest amount of training. It creates a bit of a problem but won't bore you with all the details of office politics. The second, or deeper, levels, deal with the more technical aspects of claims, they are higher trained, deal with third parties and many would hate to be called call centre staff. 

Look through your letters/emails and see if any have the details of these more technical teams and their contact details. Some insurers expose them, others push all calls via their call centre. Most should deal with you calling and saying you've received a county court claim form and pass you through to the technical team but you'll always occasionally get the person who's hoping to be promoted to the technical team and giving answers above their training. 

If they instructed solicitors to deal with you as a claimant then some will use the same law firm for defence work if the third party insurer issues first but again they should be able to give clear guidance given that ultimately they will be the one paying for the claim should you lose the litigation.


Call the police if you want but it isnt fraud nor a criminal matter.

Melvin2018

DullGreyGuy said:

Technically a claim is You -v- TP, in practice it's your insurers (actually the 2nd party but rarely referred to as such) -v- the TP insurer. 

The law, both primary legislation and common law, says that when you claim on your insurance your insurer inherits your rights to sue the TP... they step into your shoes via a process known as subrogation. They can issue in the TP's name having settled their claim. 

Most insurers divide claims into 2 or more sections, the first is your basic call centre agent, they field the majority of calls and have the lowest amount of training. It creates a bit of a problem but won't bore you with all the details of office politics. The second, or deeper, levels, deal with the more technical aspects of claims, they are higher trained, deal with third parties and many would hate to be called call centre staff. 

Look through your letters/emails and see if any have the details of these more technical teams and their contact details. Some insurers expose them, others push all calls via their call centre. Most should deal with you calling and saying you've received a county court claim form and pass you through to the technical team but you'll always occasionally get the person who's hoping to be promoted to the technical team and giving answers above their training. 

If they instructed solicitors to deal with you as a claimant then some will use the same law firm for defence work if the third party insurer issues first but again they should be able to give clear guidance given that ultimately they will be the one paying for the claim should you lose the litigation.


Call the police if you want but it isnt fraud nor a criminal matter.

I see. Thank you for your response, I understand that a bit better now. Surely the TP should have let the driver know though? Also we have both agreed to 50/50 liability so I’m not sure why it has come to this. Is that a fault of my solicitors? 

DullGreyGuy

Melvin2018 said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Technically a claim is You -v- TP, in practice it's your insurers (actually the 2nd party but rarely referred to as such) -v- the TP insurer. 

The law, both primary legislation and common law, says that when you claim on your insurance your insurer inherits your rights to sue the TP... they step into your shoes via a process known as subrogation. They can issue in the TP's name having settled their claim. 

Most insurers divide claims into 2 or more sections, the first is your basic call centre agent, they field the majority of calls and have the lowest amount of training. It creates a bit of a problem but won't bore you with all the details of office politics. The second, or deeper, levels, deal with the more technical aspects of claims, they are higher trained, deal with third parties and many would hate to be called call centre staff. 

Look through your letters/emails and see if any have the details of these more technical teams and their contact details. Some insurers expose them, others push all calls via their call centre. Most should deal with you calling and saying you've received a county court claim form and pass you through to the technical team but you'll always occasionally get the person who's hoping to be promoted to the technical team and giving answers above their training. 

If they instructed solicitors to deal with you as a claimant then some will use the same law firm for defence work if the third party insurer issues first but again they should be able to give clear guidance given that ultimately they will be the one paying for the claim should you lose the litigation.


Call the police if you want but it isnt fraud nor a criminal matter.

I see. Thank you for your response, I understand that a bit better now. Surely the TP should have let the driver know though? Also we have both agreed to 50/50 liability so I’m not sure why it has come to this. Is that a fault of my solicitors? 

There are 2.5 parts to every claim:

• Liability - who is to blame for the accident happening, and potentially is their contributory negligence which is to say one party is still liable but the losses sustained are worsened by an act of the claimant, most commonly its people not wearing a seatbelt
• Quantum - how much should the non-fault party be paid to compensate them for their losses
• Time - this is the 0.5 as its not really a dispute per say but as you get annoyed at the 30 minute wait to call your insurer so too can the other insurer get annoyed at the long delays in responses to calls and/or letters

As stated, the insurer has stepped into the shoes of the insured. Policies almost always will state you must cooperate with your insurer. So technically there is no need for them to inform their client that they are going to issue however its normally prudent to do so as if your insured says they'll refuse to go to court etc it may influence your choice as to if to issue if they'll be a no show. 

That said, if the dispute is on liability you almost certainly want your client there, if the dispute is on quantum its not really as necessary as the question will be around if £3,000 was a reasonable price to pay for replacing XYZ as it could have been repaired instead for £2,500 and thats really a discussion that the engineers need to have as the policyholder will have had little to no say in the matter. Similarly if nothing is really in dispute and the third party insurer is just being slow or there's poor communication between solicitors and insurers then there is no anticipation that it will ever see a court room. 

ThorOdinson

Seems unwise to repair if the cost is going to be 83% of the replacement price. If the repair has any issues it will end up costing more, in all likelihood.