Wing mirror destruction

[norco]

I am in the process of taking someone to court after someone U turned into my xc. They denied liability. So far it's cost £300 excess and £100 hike in premium until resolved. It's infuriating and a slow process - happened last April! I got a dash cam shortly after.

[TheLeeds]

Glad to hear you got a decent outcome.

Originally Posted by lordlichfield

I know that the other party hit your car but if this had gone to court fully I'm pretty sure it would have been a 50/50 result.

I've been in court twice in the last 5 years and regardless of what actually happened, in my experience the judge goes for the simplest judgment. The opposing barrister would argue that responsibility to avoid the collision lay with both parties in this video you can see hear is the sound of the collision but not the collision itself.

There is a lot of info that the judge has to go through before coming to that decision and I think you did well to get the other party to admit responsibility.

You would be unlikely to see a barrister presenting a case in the county court, especially on the small claims track, which is where most straightforward money claims are dealt with. On the small claims track, each side pays their own costs other than the court fees, which are initially paid by the claimant and then added onto the judgment debt if the defendant loses. This means that if either of the parties have legal representation at the hearing, the costs of this are their own problem and cannot usually be claimed against the losing party.

Looking at the dash cam footage of this incident, I'd say there was little the OP could have done to avoid the accident, other than by driving up the kerb on the left, which would have quite likely caused damage costing much more to rectify than just a mirror. You can see how much room the oncoming driver has to her left, and I'm sure any district judge looking at the footage would have realized that if the other driver had utilised this space rather than maintaining her course, then the damage would not have happened.



Most county court debt cases don't go as far as an actual hearing anyway. I'd say at least 80% of default summonses issued out of the county court are undefended. When a default summons is ignored, the claimant is entitled to apply for a default judgment 14 days after the presumed date of service, (28 days if the defendant files an acknowledgement of service).
With the exception of cases where there is death or personal injury involved, it is quite possible pursue a claim against a third party yourself, and simply notify your own insurer. Put "For information purposes only" at the top of the letter, so they can't say they weren't told about it. This also means they can't legitimately treat the matter as a claim against your policy.

Unless you are very busy, or very rich, it's almost never worth accepting the suggestion of a knock for knock agreement. All these agreements do is perpetuate the laziness of insurance claims departments, who don't want to do the job their policy holders have already paid them to do.

[deepsix]

I was in County Court last week to claim uninsured losses against a transport company's insurance company. (incident 2015, wing mirror ripped off and paintwork around damaged; total cost to repair £1200)

The legal protection policy solicitors appointed (Winns) wouldn't take case on as said it would go 50/50, but I pushed via my own insurers. The defendant didn't show up. It was just me, my barrister and his barrister (representing his insurers). I won by default, though I'm sure my Barrister would have ripped his to shreds.

My insurance company; (Ageas, who were faultless throughout) got all their initial costs awarded (my car repairs court costs barrister etc) and I got all my out of pocket costs; excess, expenses etc.

It was a matter of principle and I dug my heels in. Hopefully white van man will think twice about rampaging around the countryside, fleeing the scene and thinking he'd get away with it. He did stop for a couple of seconds then fled at speed when I reversed up to him. I had to chase him into a cul de sac 2 miles away where he denied all responsibility. He only had one full arm which made me think he may not have been insured. Police were not interested obviously as it falls out with their criteria.

Who wins? I got my excess back and expenses, but not time lost. My insurers get all their costs back, but lose me as a client as even though they didn't reduce my no claims they increased the premium 43%
Result ?

[RoyMacDonald]

Originally Posted by deepsix

I was in County Court last week to claim uninsured losses against a transport company's insurance company. (incident 2015, wing mirror ripped off and paintwork around damaged; total cost to repair £1200)

The legal protection policy solicitors appointed (Winns) wouldn't take case on as said it would go 50/50, but I pushed via my own insurers. The defendant didn't show up. It was just me, my barrister and his barrister (representing his insurers). I won by default, though I'm sure my Barrister would have ripped his to shreds.

My insurance company; (Ageas, who were faultless throughout) got all their initial costs awarded (my car repairs court costs barrister etc) and I got all my out of pocket costs; excess, expenses etc.

It was a matter of principle and I dug my heels in. Hopefully white van man will think twice about rampaging around the countryside, fleeing the scene and thinking he'd get away with it. He did stop for a couple of seconds then fled at speed when I reversed up to him. I had to chase him into a cul de sac 2 miles away where he denied all responsibility. He only had one full arm which made me think he may not have been insured. Police were not interested obviously as it falls out with their criteria.

Who wins? I got my excess back and expenses, but not time lost. My insurers get all their costs back, but lose me as a client as even though they didn't reduce my no claims they increased the premium 43%
Result ?

Wasn't this guy was it? Hit us in Broadoak and ran. Didn't know he had lost his number plate.

Roy

Roy

[deepsix]

Originally Posted by RoyMacDonald

Wasn't this guy was it? Hit us in Broadoak and ran. Didn't know he had lost his number plate.

Roy

Roy

No his was a 15 reg Citroen Relay curtain side van marauding around with a one armed driver.