Acused of a car crash I wasn't involved in

[Frikadellen]

Today I received a 15 A4 page letter in it there is a county court letter from the 18th July and lots of papers called particulars of claim

It is for an accident that supposedly occurred on the 6th of May 2009 about 9 50 am in the morning. In a town about 15 mins drive from us (in Surrey) the likely hood of my being anywhere at 9 50 am on a Saturday morning are slim..

I have a unisex name that is mostly used for men and the letter has me titled as MR. our address is typed out wrong on the court document (taking part of the road off and misspelling the town name) and in the entire document it is sent to number 3 not no 5 that we live in.

The car was registered in my husbands name and if they have done a license check his name ought to have come up but throughout it, it is addressed to me as MR.

The car we drove at the time did not have the number plate cited We have never owned a car with this number plate. Via a search my husband has discovered it belongs to a car same make but 2 years younger than the one we drove. (We have changed car since then)

There is a 2ndDefendant named this is Brit Insurance Ltd a company we have never been insured with, and the car when we had it was insured via a different company. Their address is in Co Durham. the solicitor who is sending the entire thing are in Liverpool the court claim is in North Hampton.. we live in Kent..

It is claimed to be just under £1000 damage. They now want the money for and they want us to get back in touch before the 19th of November. Am I going to have to go to a solicitor to get this dealt with?

[Marrow]

I had a similar thing once about an accident about 15 minutes away from where we live. Even though I knew I hadn't caused an accident I still checked my time sheets and work and the CCTV footage which proved the time I arrived at and left work!

I rang my insurance company and told the about the letter and that I had been at work on the day in question. They told me to leave it with them and I never heard anything more.

It is probably either a scam or a case of mistaken identity. I would call your insurers. They will be used to dealing with matters like this.

[WasLostNowAmFound]

Scam - ignore and forget about it. Other people I know have had similar letters, and texts.

[avivabeaver]

It sounds like someone has given false details at the scene and someone has either just put that in in its entirety or tried to "tidy up" the information.
You have a few options- ignore- they haven't even got your correct address (assuming you didn't have any prior letters.make a courtesy phone call to them pointing out that they do not have your reg, your correct name, address etc. Or you can contact insurers/legal expense insurers.
Insurers only work typically from info given at the scene, info on MID (which works soley from reg number) or from DVLA which works soley froom reg number. They have no access to the driver license records. This is why I think someone has given false details at the scene. Legally they have to prove it was you driving and you were negligent.

[LittleChimneyDroppings]

I would ignore it.

[LittleChimneyDroppings]

If you don't ignore it, then I would be wary of giving them the correct details in case they use it against you.

[notnagging]

I wouldn't ignore but would get in touch with your insurance to let them know. They will have a legal dept that can deal with this for you.

[nappydaysagain]

I couldn't just ignore it as it would always be on the back of my mind. I would ring your insurance company and get some advice. I'm sure it will get sorted quickly but I'd personally want to deal with it.

I'd definitely go down this route rather than involve a solicitor at this stage.

[mummytime]

I once got one for an accident I had been involved in 3 years before. I had changed insurance companies, but I got in contact with the one I had used at the time, they dealt with it and I heard no more.

[Frikadellen]

Go to the insurance company (like mummytime we are no longer with this insurance company) even though it has the court claim in it?

With a Court claim should you not be told if you have been in a claim? To answer the above question no we never heard anything before this.

[Crazytictac]

Don't ignore but contact your insurance company. If you ignore they could enter judgement against you.

In any event, I'm pretty sure they've stuffed the claim up as you have 3 years from the date of the accident to claim and they are out of time for serving the papers (unless a minor).

[mycatlikestwiglets]

So to be clear, the letter is (i) addressed to the wrong person, (ii) addressed to the wrong address, (iii) mentions a number plate of a car you have never owned, (iv) refers to an accident in which you were not involved, and (v) mentions an insurer with whom you have never had insurance. Is that right?

What is being claimed for? If personal injury, the claim has been brought too late (there is a 3 year time-limit). Property damage claims can however be brought up to 6 years from the accident.

Is there a document called a Claim Form within the Court papers as well as the Particulars of Claim? If so, what date is stamped on it?

I think in your position I would do two things right away: (1) contact the court to check that this is a genuine claim, and (2) google the name of the solicitors if you haven't done so already to check whether they are in fact genuine.

If the answer to the above 2 questions is yes, I would probably call the solicitors to say that you believe this has been sent to you by mistake given that it refers to matters you know nothing about and contains numerous errors, and see what they say. Don't give too much about yourself away on that call, get them to justify why you have been sent these papers and try to get as much information as possible.

If following that call you don't think this is going to go away, then I would be contacting the insurer you were with at the time - they should be prepared to deal with this for you (although all will depend on the terms of the policy).

[Frikadellen]

So to be clear, the letter is (i) addressed to the wrong person, Addressed to me but as Mr.. not Mrs

(ii) addressed to the wrong address, wrong number and address spelt wrong on the Particulars of claim

(iii) mentions a number plate of a car you have never owned, Correct

(iv) refers to an accident in which you were not involved, Correct

and (v) mentions an insurer with whom you have never had insurance. Is that right? Correct

What is being claimed for? If personal injury, the claim has been brought too late (there is a 3 year time-limit). Property damage claims can however be brought up to 6 years from the accident. it is for damage to the car and money for a hire car for 5 days

Is there a document called a Claim Form within the Court papers as well as the Particulars of Claim? If so, what date is stamped on it? Yes and date is 18th July 2012

I think in your position I would do two things right away: (1) contact the court to check that this is a genuine claim, yes genuine (called just now) the guy there says it sounds like I need to do an disassociation

and (2) google the name of the solicitors if you haven't done so already to check whether they are in fact genuine. Yes genuine and has the following on their website

pcj solicitors is a specialist Road Traffic Accident practice which advises and represents clients of the credit-hire industry and victims of motor accidents. PCJ is an independent firm of solicitors and offers truly independent advice to clients referred to it by Credit Hire organisations