To take them to court?

[AnxietyLevelMax]

I had a car accident 3 months ago. I believe it was not my fault although the other party’s insurance company is not willing to negotiate with my insurance company and appointed solicitors to take me (and the insurance company) to court if I don’t pay the settlement figure.

so i either agree to take them to court, which will be handled by my insurance company and their lawyers but i will have to attend (have no control over how this people will handle the case) or i just agree for my insurance company to pay them but then my car insurance etc might go rocket high and will need to face any other consequences i guess.

i was at the roundabout, three lines when u get to the roundabout, at the roundabout and when u exit the roundabout. You can go straight from all three lines. I was on the third line going straight (second exit). It was very very busy and the other car just jumped in front of me and i hit him. He claims he was next to me and wanted to go to the third exit, but was literally in front of me when i hit him, i hit his rear passenger door, he completely turned around, his wheel came off, back door and bumper was smashed etc. to me he was speeding and entered the roundabout and wanted to make it in front of everyone but it happened so quick i cannot be sure. It is my word against his. No cameras or witnesses.

first picture is from Google map and shows the road when u get to the roundabout
second picture shows the actual roundabout, i was exactly where that white car is when i hit him

I agree. I want to see the road signs, even though the markings appear to support the OP.

I dont have any better pics besides the ones from google map but i guess i should drive up there and check it just in case before i make a decision

He is in the wrong lane OP. I don't see how he could argue otherwise. If he wanted to turn right then he needed to be in the third lane.

He was in the wrong lane, realised he was in the wrong lane, tried to nip into the right lane, it didn't succeed. Most sensible people wouldn't go straight in the third lane though but you should be able to if the signage says you can without someone ploughing into you.

It's been a few years since I left but I used to work in motor claims and I think it would be quite unlikely you would be found non-fault in this situation.

From what you've said, it sounds like you were in the right lane and he was in the wrong lane so while he is also partially liable, failing to check your mirrors and make sure it was safe to go also makes you partially liable. You said you didn't see him until you hit him so you must not have checked properly. While the percentage of fault may go more in your favour with him having a higher liability, it's unlikely you would have no liability.
It's also impossible to prove speed so it doesn't matter if you think he was speeding or not if you can't prove it.
Do you have any witnesses at all that would help in your favour?

If non fault there is no consequences in terms of high insurance going forward

This also isn't true unfortunately. A claim in your insurance, regardless of fault or non fault, can (and usually does) affect the next years premium as it still needs to be declared

It's not really up to you though. It's up to your insurance company whether they take it to court. If you don't really know how the accident happened and aren't sure of the road layout then it's probably going to settle on whatever basis your insurance company decides rather than go to court. The good news is though there's no reason why you personally will have to pay the costs. Just let your insurance company handle it. Your premiums will be affected the same regardless of how much they pay out. All they're interested in is whether a claim has been made on the policy.

More pics from google trip. Well i guess we were both wrong. I really dont understand how can you have three lanes go straight, you take an exit and you still have three lanes…nothing merges there.

i needed to get to A421. I am assuming i could change the lane after i exit the roundabout but it all seems to be just too complicated

@B0ssAssB1tch the insurance company is waiting for me to decide if i want to go to court ot not. They will handle it of course but i would have to show up at court too. At least it is what they said

@Lou98 thank you. Fyi - no witnesses

He was absolutely in the wrong lane.

Arguably, you were too.

Based on the principle that you keep left for exiting up to 180°, right if you go beyond 180° and stay in the middle lane if you're going straight on.

Given that the exit you took, op, had 3 lanes then you could argue you were positioned correctly.

He was more at fault though, because if he'd been in the correct lane you wouldn't have collided and because on a roundabout cars on the right take priority.

Yes to poorly designed roundabout.

I'm not legally trained at all, btw, it's just my interpretation based on the highway code as I was taught by my instructor.

I can see why it's disputed. I think its either a case of dual-fault or you're in the clear. Given that its going to court though, I'm not sure I'd be expecting you to be completely exonerated.

Which junction is it? An aerial pic from google maps might help?

Oh and I would expect the highway code to take precedence over a poorly designed roundabout - at least until there's a significant test case at court.

I think that is the junction where all three lanes are signed for the A421, but you are joining the A421 and it goes both ways from the roundabout.

so LH lane is straight on for the A421 to MK. RH Lane is turn right to the A421 to Bedford. Middle lane you can either go to MK or turn for Bedford, as RH Lane is Bedford only.

So you saw A421 on all lanes, thought you could use the RH lane for MK, and he was in the middle lane for Bedford so turned?

The OP has driven into the side of a vehicle whilst leaving the lane of a roundabout. No way you'll get no fault.

The other driver may have been in the wrong lane, but they were ahead of you and you drove into them instead of stopping or staying in the lane on the roundabout and continuing round.

I see this too much with cyclists on roundabouts, going all the way round on the outer lane because they are slow. It's legal, but not very safe.
OP: you're going to have to accept some of the blame here. I wouldn't go to court. Also 50:50 vs 70:30 probably makes no difference apart from pride.

The other option is that you were back a roundabout and had just left the M1?

In which case I think you are right in the all three lanes are A421, with the RH lane only signed to turn right up the A507. This pic is a bit more blurry.

At the first roundabout after you exit the M1, to either turn hard right up the A507 or turn partially right to immediately rejoin the M1, you have to be in the RH Lane

I know that jn reasonably well and would say if you were approaching the FIRST roundabout off the M1 you are correct to be able to go straight on in the RH Lane and he was in the wrong lane.

if it's the SECOND roundabout after leaving the M1 you cannot go straight on for MK in the RH lane.

However, you still hit him rather than the other way round, so you may still have done liability even if you were at the first roundabout and in the correct lane to go straight on.

I don't understand how three lanes can all go straight when there is a high probability that some cars will want to go right which means they have to cut across the cars on their right unless they are in the 3rd lane only themselves.

It does look like the road signs do not match the road markings though, so clearly I don't remember as well as I thought!

all three lanes marked on the road for straight on. But the sign says middle and LH only. However he should have been RH to turn.

I would think 50:50 is the best you'd get as the sign says you were both in the wrong lane, although the lane markings say otherwise.

@ChagSameachDoreen thank you!

It was advice for the future, not a suggestion for time travel... 

The point is you might think it's too late now, but as I said, it's happened to us twice in a few months so really important.

I'd say the other driver was definitely in the wrong lane and ideally you'd have been in a different lane too. Presumably like you, the other driver found it was too busy and couldn't change lane either.

It is not uncommon for people to end up in the wrong lane on roundabouts, in my experience, but when they do they should be aware of it and drive carefully, making their intentions very clear.

It sounds like both of you were to blame to some extent. Him, because he was speeding, and you because it sounds like you weren't paying enough attention to other traffic if you didn't see him until you hit him. Also, you haven't said whether you were indicating or not. The other car would have had good reason to assume you were carrying on round the roundabout if you weren't indicating that you were coming off it.

I also don't understand how, if he zoomed ahead of you on your inside, you hit his rear passenger door rather than the rear door on the driver's side.

Unfortunately, this is your fault. You were in the wrong lane for going straight on, so when you tried to go straight you crossed into another lane and hit the other car. He was in the wrong lane for turning right, but it was your lack of observations before crossing into his lane that caused the crash.

See my beautiful diagram.

These are the lanes with appropriate exits, then what you and the other car tried to do. You were both in the wrong lanes for where you wanted to go.

The three lane exit is confusing you because the left lane is MK only (it bypasses the next roundabout), and the other two lanes lead to another three-lane roundabout.

Clear as mud, right?

Not helped by the road markings not matching that though...

I am very confused if neither of you were changing lanes then how did you hit him?

I think we need a mini video please with toy cars to show what happened!

The road markings are old markings for when the 1st lane was left-turn only. This is the road sign in 2009.