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

You will have to pay if you don't attend. I'm fairly sure of that. Please do go even if you have to take your child with you. If you turn up with a child at least you're there. I mean what are they going to do? They'll just have to suck it up. It's not ideal, obviously but it's much better than a no show.

Bring your DC if I were you. This is ridiculous of them.

Do you feel able to say where the court is OP? If it is in my town I would meet you there and play with your toddler for an hour. Maybe MNet could come to the rescue?!

Should it ever happen again, hire the cheapest car that meets your needs. Don’t think in terms of like for like. You are obliged to keep your losses to a minimum, so even if your car is very expensive, you should hire a shitty runabout if it is big enough to get you where you need to be. And take it back the moment you no longer need it.

This...
I don't normally do sarcasm as answers on MN but expecting you to work miracles is head shaking stuff...

If they question why youve bought them with you tell them that with 24hrs notice and no family available to help no childcare could be arranged and you hoped that as you'd chosen to bring them the 'punishment' would be a lot more lenient than had you of left them at home on their own.

OP it sounds familiar as I am dealing with something similar at work where someone was insured with Admiral but went through a claims management company (beginning with A) instead thinking this company were affiliated with Admiral, and actually signed a credit hire agreement for the car and racked up really high charges. The third party insurer refused to pay the extortionate car hire charges so is going to court, and the person who was absolutely not at fault in the accident has been asked to provide all sorts of financial information and bank statements and has been asked to provide evidence that they could not have afforded to pay for the car themselves. Company A have passed it on to solicitors PL. I'm not sure how it will pan out but there are a lot of similar experiences online if you Google the company name. There are lots of stories on pistonhead website.

It doesn't matter what your insurance company agreed if the other driver isn't admitting liability.

I’m just wondering how this evidence will stand up in the court. The defendant statement ‘Although I was not present at the time of the accident, I believe this is what happened’

The statement even says the accident was in March in the late afternoon. When it wasn’t, it was in the autumn time in the morning. It even has the wrong part of the road in the diagram. All the statement is incorrect

OP, this won't be a court argument about what time the accident happened.

You have signed up to a 'credit hire' (CH) agreement through an accident management company (AMC). It's the most expensive way possible to hire a car.

There are clauses in CH agreements regarding whether or not you actually need that specific vehicle and whether it needs to be 'credit hire' rather than just 'hire'.

You will have signed acceptance of this.

Another part of the contract will state that you agree to help the AMC recover the money in court.

Please don't worry about court itself. All you have to do is tell the truth. The truth will not get you into any trouble.
Ask reception about claiming expenses as soon as you get there.

From what the OP has written, the other party has admitted liability. it's the amount of losses which is in dispute - specifically, the excessive hire car costs.

My insurance deemed it no fault, I was paid out, they closed the claim. They recovered all their costs from the third party but the third party refused to pay for the hire car costs

Unfortunately you don't seem to know what you're talking about.

"Ask reception" about expenses for a civil case?

And "the truth will not get you into any trouble"? You have no idea whether the OP has signed up to a CH contract which states XYZ is true but in fact ZYX is true. If OP now states ZYX in court then there may be liabilities around recovery of the hire charges.

Thank you.

The whole thing has just been stressful.

I had never been in an accident before so didn’t really know the process, I was quite shook up, literally 5 minutes from home when it happened. I called my insurer straight away and because I had legal cover on my policy they said somebody would call me and then not long after the AMC called me. So I was still shook up and just said yes to the hire car as I needed a vehicle to get around for various reasons. I wasn’t given a choice of vehicle, just turned up and it turned out to be a new car and apparently it’s all that Enterprise had available. I did sign that agreement. it just seemed to get dragged out for quite long. Quite a few days I emailed asking if I could return the car, which I have proof of. I’ll definitely know not to accept one again should I ever need to

My insurers were quick to point me in this direction and also telling me I should make a claim if I had any injuries and everything like that. Thankfully I didn’t have any and didn’t need to make a claim but the AMC did keep asking me if I wanted to put any further claims in

Op I took someone to small claims court once due to non payment. They didn't show. I don't think they got into trouble for not showing but the court ruled in my favour so they had to pay in full plus court costs.

If you don't go you risk losing.

Good luck for today OP.

The short answer is you absolutely HAVE TO GO because otherwise your insurer can claim you didn't cooperate a d make you liable for the claim.
I'm sorry the logistics is so complicated but please don't take your chances here.

The longer answer is that claim management companies are taking the piss with replacement cars, trying to rack up the costs as much as they can for profit, and insurance companies are fighting back. There is nothing you can do about it, but unfortunately you are the named claimant so you have to do everything your insurance company /court tells you to do.

You'll end up with the bill. There will be a clause in the T&Cs that says you must assist with recovering the charges, including attending court. I used to work in this field.

A poster who actually knows what they are talking about. If the OP does attend the court hearing, they are going to say things that their own counsel will not like at all!

OP, don't worry, just tell the truth. The likely outcome is that the judge will award an amount for the Credit Hire but at a much reduced amount. The Credit Hire company will not ask you to pay the difference.

As a warning to others, ensure you know what kind of hire car you are receiving. 9/10, it will be a Credit Hire car!

It won't stand up, unless there is evidence that supports it, e.g. the damage to the vehicle, or road markings.

Nobody cares at this stage about the cause of the accident at all. This will be entirely about the cost of the hire and whether or not it was reasonable.

Yes this. This is not a hearing about the accident. If the third party insurers are refusing to pay excessive car hire fees then this is likely a hearing to determine impecuniosity and whether the OP could have afforded to hire a car herself at the time rather than by taking out a credit hire agreement.

Unfortunately this is happening a lot, where accidents are passed to claims management firms who make their money by hiring cars at triple the price of normal car hire firms, while the damaged car takes a suspiciously long time to be fixed. If anyone is contacted by a claims management company then don't deal with them. Insist on going through your actual insurer, or if you do need a hire car then you can go direct to the third party insurers (if the third party was at fault) and they will happily provide a hire car.

It makes perfect sense.

She will be questioned about the type of VEHICLE, she normally drives and whether the substitute vehicle was similar in size, value, performance etc to her own vehicle.

They will also try to assess whether the credit higher company kept their the contract going longer than necessary and if so why and did the Claimant know anything about this.

That point she would tell them that she had asked why it was taking so long and why they couldn't end the lease earlier.

Also credit hire companies are not the same as car hire company.

Credit hire companies charge far higher rates per day or per hour than car hire company do and for this reason the person referring them will want them to take the car out for as long as possible.

It isn't always the insurance company who takes out car hire or credt hire. An insurance company will use a panel of car hire companies.

A credit hire company is usually attached attached to a no win no fee company company who will pay them some type of incentive (this used to be a referral fee but it's this is now illegal) and use their own vehicles which are higher end vehicles that cost more to hire.

The claimant will be able to give evidence and facts that nobody else will, therefore is a very important part of the court process.

Don't be so fucking rude.