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

I’m the only person who will be in the room that was actually there at the accident

I’ve just had the exact same thing, I went to court about a week ago.

i had no idea that I was supposed to find the cheapest car hire possible and just went where my insurance company told me to go. In my case the other driver was at fault and admitted that straight away.

I tried to get out of going to court but was told that as it was me who the car agreement was with then I would be liable for the costs if I didn’t go and defend the case.

i was very nervous but it wasn’t too bad in the end. Basically I had to prove that I needed a car and quickly. It came down to timings in the end, the other party’s insurance had texted me and called offering me a cheaper car via them, apparently they are not allowed to cold call and the text could have been mistaken as a scam. The letter they sent arrived after I had collected the hire car and as I needed a car quickly (disabilities) it was found in my favour.

I don't think it's going to be about the actual accident is it? It's going to be about the hire car. When you got it, how long you had it, why it cost twelve thousand pounds.

I think you need to accept that you have to attend and stop focusing on why that is difficult for you. Sorry that comes across unsympathetic and I’m not unsympathetic but I am a realist and you do need to attend in person.

Thank you.

Same here, I wasn’t told to find the cheapest one. Just that one would be provided as a like for a like. They didn’t even let me know what car it would be before I picked it up. I just received a text saying car is ready for pick up, arrived at Enterprise to pick it up and they said it was the only one they had available for me

This is what’s confused me too but my case handler says I need to give evidence about what happened at the accident, as well as why I needed the hire car. Even though my insurance agreed I wasn’t at fault and my no claims bonus wasn’t effected at all

Still trying to find someone for childcare as apparently the court have flat out refused for me to bring my DC

Good luck OP. I potentially have similar coming. It's the claims management companies and their scams. With me I was put through to what I thought was the claims department of my insurance co but was actually a CMC. They took my car even though the damage was super minor (but undrivable apparently) and then held onto my car for MONTHS. I was chasing them almost weekly (via email that I have copies of!!) to get it sorted, kept getting told no garages have space and eventually got my car back UNFIXED. but still the bill was for £18,000. I managed to get my car fixed myself within a week so they were absolutely dragging it out to maximise costs. If you have any evidence to prove similar - emails, times of phonecalls etc (I'm sure they have to record them?) I'd take that along. They can't claim unreasonable costs from you when you were the one trying to mitigate. At least I hope not. That's what I'm banking on!
It's 100% a scam. My car is only worth about £3k and they're trying to charge me for hire costs for £18,000, they didn't even fix my car in the end and they basically held me hostage refusing to return it for months. Absolute arseholes.
The sooner the law is changed in this country the better. It's a problem for everyone with motor insurance and it's why premiums are so high

Your partner (it sounds from your posts like you have one) should take the time off.

I'm presuming that you've had quite a bit of notice of this hearing (albeit didnt know the location would be changed or no video link), so you should have sorted childcare weeks ago.

If you really have to, and absolutely no alternative, bring toddler along, but it will depend on the judge whether that's ok.

You are going to have to just suck it up and go though, inconvenient or not.

For nonattendance at a civil court hearing?

I agree that won't happen, the claim will just be dismissed leaving OP liable for hire charges and costs

This happened to DH. 3rd party drove into the back of us. Clear no-claim

Our insurance co referred us to some legal company to "sort it out". Which included car hire. Yep we said. Great.
Car arrived as quick as you like. Rest of it dragged out forever (quite a bit down to our insurance company and their "approved" garage). All settled.
Then 3rd party refused to pay the (hugely overpriced) car hire - stating we could have got it a lot cheaper and didn't need it for so long. They were not disputing it with DH - but with the insurance company. DH would never have been liable for it.

I think it is a known scam...the insurance company gets kick backs from the car hire. It is over-priced and they make you have it for way longer than reasonable. Hence 3rd party can claim it is not "reasonable".

DH went to court as a witness for his insurance company (no choice, like you) and was questioned a bit as to why he needed the car hire etc. The 3rd party insurers "won" some of it - the judge/magistrate ruled that DH needed the car - but the cost of it was not reasonable.

Which court is the case taking place in? If you are close to me I am more than happy to come and entertain your two-year-old for the time you're in court giving evidence.

I'm a happy fun grandma and love being with younger children; my grandchildren are aged between 15 months and eight years old.

Don't feel the need to put the court location in the message on here, just send the direct message if you're interested in finding out if I can help.

I'm sure I can entertain the. For an hour or so with no problems.

Also, I worked in motor Insurance claims for many years (fraud examiner) so
Understand how credit hire car companies work and they are dodgy as fuck, even if you're insurance company arranged it. I could give you more information about that if you wanted.

Whatever you decide good look. I hope it goes well, and please don't worry, you're not going to liable for any of the costs.

In which ground are the calling you to court as witness? Of what, of they hiring a car?.
This doesn't make any sense in my head.
Can you solicitor write a letter and politely refuse due other commitments.
I wouldn't want to go neither. All sounds weird.

Why do people comment on these threads when they know nothing?

This is your claim, forget the insurers. If you dont go the court very likely will dismiss the claim. So you wont recover the hire car charges. Your insurer will look to you to pay due to your breach of contract with them. It 100% will be a term of your insurance contract that you comply/pursue claims to recover losses

Am really shocked by this. When I had to go to small claims court the other side didn't turn up 'due to child care issues' and this was accepted! I had travelled several hundred miles to attend (had to sort care for children). I did know from the outset which court I would have to attend though. Am surprised this can be changed so last minute - maybe tactics from the other side.....
Please try and get there somehow and I think worst case just take your child (with lots of distractions/maybe a chance you can give your evidence whilst they sleep?!) - you are being put in an impossible situation.

I really don't see how they can say don't bring your child.
On what grounds would they be excluded from the court room?

I had similar and it had already been agreed to be the other party's fault, they even admitted it. And there wasn't a big hire car bill, and thankfully I had refused to allow insurance company to give my claim to a claims management company (I argued that my contract was with them, the insurance company, and they would have to handle it, which they did).
It was just the other party's insurance company using the court as a delaying tactic. .
I was worried and annoyed too - only I would be needed in court, not the other party who admitted fault. Why should someone not at fault be dragged into court? I was told that this was part of my contract with my insurance company (who also wouldn't have to attend court) and there was nothing I could about it.
Thankfully the other party's insurance company reached a point where, given their customer had admitted fault and was obviously at fault (I was stationary etc), they agreed to pay my insurance company. It was not a large claim at all and took well over a year to get paid.
TLDR:

• you are probably obliged under your insurance contract to attend court
• always refuse to allow your claim to be handled by a CMC, your own insurance company will have a claims team of its own if you insist
• if it's just a delaying tactic, the chances are it won't reach court, but if not, I don't know what happens.

Don’t be so silly!

What were you going to do with your dc before it got moved?

Take your child. It's not a wigs and gowns courtroom and you can just say, if anyone gets shirty, that your childcare arrangements broke down and you decided to prioritise attendance at court.

Better to put yourself out and take the journey tomorrow than to post next week that you didn't go to court because you didn't realise it was serious and now you've been told you owe £5000 to the other party's insurance company.
As I found out to my cost not so long ago after having to claim after someone drove into my parked car and failed to stop, the insurance companies will do anything not to lose money if they can help it. I hadn't had a claim in 18 years and yet my insurance doubled overnight and I'll be punished for the next four years.

Good luck tomorrow, I hope it goes well.

Yep, enterprise with me as well. Apparently it is in the contract that the agreement is between you and the rental company not the insurance company. The insurance company should really explain it better.

the actual courtroom was just me, my barrister, their barrister and the judge. I was the only witness. Only took about half an hour.

Can you find a local teenager to babysit for the day?

It isn’t unusual for the court to be changed last minute (the day before) in civil claims. The courts timetable in (list) too many cases on the
basis that they know some will settle or be discontinued. Sometimes if they can’t find a court with availability within their area, they pull the case from the list and relist at a later date. It would have been nice if the lawyers had warned you that these things can happen.

Basically you have said you will cooperate and that means attending this hearing. As others have said, their will only be a handful of people in the room so try not to worry, they expect people to be nervous. If you don’t go, whether you end up of pocket as a result will depend on the agreement you have signed when hiring the car/with your insurers/lawyers. I imagine most of the questions asked will be about the hire, if you needed it, If you could have paid upfront rather than having it on credit, if the cost is reasonable. £12k is a huge bill for car hire. No wonder it is being disputed.

If you have no childcare I’d ring the court tomorrow morning and ask if you can attend via zoom / teams. I mean what else can you do if they give you 24hrs notice and say no children. 12k for car hire is insane, I can see why they are disputing it but I doubt any claim against you personally, it’s a battle between the insurance companies re who pays for the extortionate car hire.