What will happen if I don’t attend?

[Happy988]

I was in a car accident almost 2 years ago. My insurance put it down as no fault and then I was paid out the value of my car. As my car was written off my insurance put me in touch with legal company who offered a private hire vehicle till I was paid out

Third party are disputing the hire car costs. For months now I have been sending the solicitors evidence, forms, etc.

They want me to attend court and give evidence. I have anxiety and don’t do well with crowds, new people and speaking to a group. I’m a single parent and have no childcare to get there . Really panicking about this. The solicitors asked the court if the hearing could be made online but they have only just made the decision this morning that I need to attend in person. They said my medical evidence of anxiety isn’t enough to warrant it being made online.

The court they want me to attend is a 60 mile round trip from where I live. I have a no vehicle currently as it’s in for repair, I have no funds for taxis for a journey that long, no childcare available. I just don’t know what to do. what happens if I don’t attend? Will I be liable for the costs? I feel as though im going to have some kind of panic attack about this

Please stop posting erroneous advice when it’s abundantly clear that you have no legal training.

You’re just making yourself look stupid for a start. 🤦🏻‍♀️

My insurance put it down as no fault and then I was paid out the value of my car

How long were you using the rental car before your insurance paid you out?

Unfortunately in the shitty world of car insurance, most companies fob you off onto claim management companies who take in all the costs and try to recover from the other party - whilst running up the bill as much as possible! We've just been through it and I've spent 2 weeks arguing with Enterprise and our insurers that I won't be agreeing to any such contract and I demanded insurers fix out car without their BS. I got there in the end but the upsell from Enterprise was frustrating.

Hire a Zipcar or something for a few hours to get you there and back. It may well be cheaper than trains and buses.

Ask everyone you know - friends, family, neighbours, if they'd be willing to have your 2 year old for a few hours. Offer to pay. If not, find a babysitting agency.

Ask your insurer/solicitor to send an uber/taxi if you have legal cover; bring your child(ren) if you must.

You need to go.

I suspect that's why they're disputing liability. There's a basic principle with claims like this that you must mitigate your loss, i.e. you mustn't bump up the damages unnecessarily. They are likely to argue that you could have hired a cheaper car, so you'll need to be able to justify this.

@Zyq This is what I thought. But they told me it would be a like for like for my car. I turned up to enterprise and that was the only car they had and said this is what you’ll be using. It definitely wasn’t a like for like for my car at the time

Your contract with the insurer will say that you have to co-operate with them in trying to recover from the other driver. You can't just take their money and say "Thanks, but now I'm happy for you to take the loss because I don't fancy helping".

How long did you continue to hire after your insurers paid you out? The defendant’s insurer will be attacking (1) the length of hire, especially if it went beyond the payment date for your car, (2) the weekly or daily rate and (3) whether you ‘mitigated’ your loss, ie kept it to a minimum of what you needed in terms of the hiring period, the rate and type of hire vehicle (eg. it’s unreasonable to hire a new Mercedes SL500 when your car was a 15 year rust bucket)
Evidence about the hire period is factual, given by you and backed up by the hire documents.Your barrister will deal with rates and mitigation issues. You’ll be questioned by the other side; be truthful. Good luck

I understand that but it’s not that I don’t fancy helping. I have been in contact with them for months sending all kinds of evidence. It’s just the change to a 60 mile trip To a different court with 24 hour notice and already under a lot of stress and having to sort childcare and costs

Please ignore this. It's dangerous advice.

It went back the day after I was paid out.I tried to give it back even earlier than that as I knew it was racking up costs but they said hold on to it. I didn’t get a choice in the car, just got told it would be like for like and I turned up and it wasn’t at all

A few years ago now, but a woman drove into me and then insisted it was my fault and claimed for whiplash and miscarriage. I had plenty of evidence that she had been in the wrong lane at traffic lights and had turned left into me while she was in a straight-ahead lane. Despite the CCTV footage and the witness testimony I was called to attend a court 250 miles from where I lived (in the area where she lived) for a 10am start on 23 December. There was snow and ice on the ground and I ended up travelling up there overnight, staying in a Premier Inn and turning up the next day — only to find that her legal team had accepted the evidence and cancelled the day before.

OP, you can't just bury your head in the sand and hope this will go away. Turn up with your child to court and say whatever you need to say to sort this out. Getting all defensive about having to travel 30 miles to sorth this out just looks petulant. Surely you have family, friends, work colleagues or even a neighbour who will help you out?

Today is the day before the hearing.

Far too late to issue a witness summons.
Also, lots of confusion on this thread about the small claims regime and costs generally.
As OP’s insurers weren’t a party to the hire care contract, they don’t have any interest in this aspect of the claim. It sounds like the hire company is fronting it and possibly have a no win no fee arrangement in place (ref: the ‘fund’ that will pay out if Defendant doesn’t). Definitely check your paperwork and ask questions tomorrow OP.

Thank you. There was talk of the being striked out. Think that was the term used.

They have told me that there will be nobody at the court who can look after my daughter during the hearing so have said I am unable to bring her. All family are at work and can’t get the time off

i will have to go and somehow find a way

If you don't go, the case will be awarded in favour of the defendant and you might be held liable for the cost of the hire. You signed the agreement, they'll expect you to attend court as part of you cooperating in order to not be pursued for costs. I've worked in motor insurance for 20 years and credit hire is the biggest legal scam going and a huge part of the reason why everyone's insurance is rocketing. Hire can very quickly outstrip the value of a written off car by thousands.

I would go back to the hire co and show them the evidence that you tried to hand the car back and that it wasn't a like for like - you tried to mitigate your losses, and they wouldn't let you. If you told the judge that, it wouldn't go well for the credit hire company! Tell the hire co you want settlement reached before the hearing. They can absolutely negotiate with the other side before it gets to the court hearing. If they don't settle, and you tell the judge the hire co has inflated the costs, they could lose the case entirely. So it's in their interests to settle as well.

@Zyq all well and good but a lot of unnecessary scare-
mongering about having to pay the insurers back. The insurers don’t look to have any contractual interest in the car hire claim. The case is done as far as they’re concerned. And the witness summons boat has long sailed. It’s far too late when the hearing’s tomorrow. No one wants to summons their own client; it screams communication breakdown unless there’s a really good reason, eg witness’s employer wants it so that pay can given for time off.

Just noticed it's tomorrow - get on the phone to them and tell them to settle it.

It’s entirely possible that one side will ask for the claim to be struck out, as a preliminary application to the court before the main hearing on the issues. But in this scenario it’s more likely that it’ll come from the Defendant, seeking to strike all or part of your hire costs on the grounds that they’ve been unreasonably incurred. After all, you (the hire company in your name) are claiming against the Defendant but it doesn’t look like they’re claiming against you.
*Try not to panic

• Organise yourself to get to court tomorrow, ideally at least 30 minutes before your hearing is due to start *Put the court’s phone number in your phone now *Go to court tomorrow with your DC and if you’re running late for any reason, call and ask to speak to the Listing Officer to explain and give them an eta. *Be guided by what your barrister says. *Ask the barrister to explain exactly 1) what’s going on and 2) whether you have any personal responsibility for the costs or hire charges (very doubtful)

Not happening at 16.30, not least because the court office shuts at 16.00. Too late to get an application/consent order in before tomorrow’s hearing. In any case, Solicitors will need instructions from respective clients; defendant (or any) insurers won’t pay a penny more in hire charges than they have to. Hire company will dig its heels in to make maximum profit and OP is stuck between them. All she can do is tell the truth.

OP small babies & toddlers aren’t a problem in a short hearing. Pop her in a buggy and keep her with you. It happens more often than you think. It’s not your fault you couldn’t arrange childcare and don’t have anyone to go with you to wait outside with her.
Hope it goes well for you

Likely you'll go to a lot of trouble only to have no one else there as they've assumed you wouldn't show. Whatever happens I'd be sending them an invoice for my travel expense, refreshments and extra for the inconvnience.

A small claims trial is the least formal sort of trial. Sometimes it will be in a court room, sometimes in the judge's office. It will just be the judge, your lawyer, the other side's lawyer, you and maybe the other driver depending on whether they dispute who was at fault for the accident, or are just disputing the amount claimed. So max 5 people in the room. No one will be horrible to you. If the issue is hire they usually just have some questions about why you needed to hire/if you could have afforded to repair or replace the vehicle earlier etc.

I would go. If you don't turn up the claim will be dismissed so the other side won't have to pay anything. Your hire contract will say you are personally liable for the hire charges plus you will have legal costs and may struggle to get insurance again.

If there's no liability dispute it should be possible to settle. Ask your solicitor if any offers have been made

Thank you for the information.

I think I’m making it bigger in my head than it will be. I’ll just have to get there however it may be

The driver of the other vehicle apparently is not available for the hearing. It was a company vehicle he was driving. He no longer works for the company so they’ve said he won’t be attending. His ex boss (the company owner) will be attending. He wasn’t actually at the scene of the accident so is going off his ex employees word