To ask for advice - legal / driving DH being taken to claims court

[Grainyawaydays]

Around two years ago DH had notification from his car insurance that someone 300 miles away was making a claim against him. He was 100% home all day that day and we weren’t notified of the claim until about three months after it had gone in and he’d actually had a new car by this point. He trades them fairly regularly due to his line of work.
insurance said they would fight it and eventually it was closed about 18 months after the alleged accident.
He has received a letter today from the small claims court and the other driver is alleging he caused £12k worth of damage to her car and she didn’t get his details because he fled the scene. She is now taking him to court personally for £14k (£12k plus costs incurred).
Hes on about his fourth car since this happened and we have no way of proving that this wasn’t him. But equally she can’t prove it was - because it wasn’t! The police don’t seem to have been informed and I do think if someone caused £12k of damage to my car and drove off I’d have informed them at the time.
we can only assume she has recorded the reg incorrectly - since she’s saying it was a fairly major crash but the other driver left the scene? So it’s possible she hasn’t recorded the correct reg in the moment. Or it was a cloned plate.
Any advice? It looks like DH is going to have to go to court - 300 miles away - and get a solicitor.

I expect its coming up to the 3 year limitation for an injury claim, hence the proceedings. It's odd though, your insurers have denied you being involved and would have asked for a description. Also presumably would have stated him wfh many miles away. Its clearly either wrong reg or cloned vehicle. If it was cloned you'd probably have had parking/speeding tickets. You'd have thought her solicitors would have just put it to the MIB as an Untraced Driver cade. More likely they have sat on it and done nowt and are now issuing just in case.
In any event your insurers will deal with it

Yeah, this doesn’t sound right at all.

Google maps timeline seems like it'll be helpful I've just checked mine and it goes back to 2015 which waaaay predates the time I got this phone. So long as he uses the same Gmail account from the time he should be able to pull that up.

Heyyyyyy.... we do our best 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Could you counter sue? Or at least reach out to insurance /solicitors to say that it really wasn't him and in the event of phone /other digital records being analysed it will be proven, so do they really want to go to court with this?

Does he have emails or chat records sent around the time of the crash that don't require digital forensics? WhatsApps, social media posts?

There would surely be a record of the extensive work that his car would have needed after such a bad accident? Does anywhere store car service history in the same way that MOT records are stored?

How often do you take photos? I'm a bit ridiculous in taking photos of random things like my dinner, a nice tree etc. Worth checking your photo stream and seeing if there's anything from that date that would show where you were (the photo will have location info embedded)? Or your social media etc?

If you have been served with a claim form and particulars of claim (they may be in a box on the claim form) then please make sure you don’t miss the date to acknowledge service / file a defence. If you do your DH will be at risk of a default judgment against him which could turn into a CCJ. Even if you think your insurers are handling it, keep on top of those dates and make sure the claim has been responded to.

if it just a letter of claim that is different.

Awful situation - fully engage with the court process, sending in any supporting documents and your side of the story. (The insurance company's closing of the case etc will help).
The lack of evidence on their side is highly suspect and the delay in making the claim is probably a tactic. Ie less likely to have evidence of where you were that day!
Make sure you make it clear that you will claim for any expenses incurred in travelling/fighting the claim. It might make them think again.
Often someone will choose a court close to them/miles away from the defendent in the hope they will just pay up.
Good luck!

Wonder if this person has gone to one of those no win no fee companies. I know of someone who was involved in an accident which wasn't their fault. Someone drove out of a junction into them as they were passing it. Dealt with by insurance. A couple of years later the people whose fault it was put in an injury claim for 6k.

Don't know how it panned out but told my mother whose friend was a passenger in the car which got hit while just driving along the road that it was probably one of those no win no fee companies and they thought here is a chance to make some money even though the accident was totally their fault.

Really good point. If they do manage to get a CCJ against you, it's a pain but you are able to get it cancelled in certain cases!

Have you called the court the letter purports to have come from to check details? Not from a number on the letter I mean, search online for the court details and call.

If it was an email you'd assume scam wouldn't you, why not with a paper letter?

I would certainly check his bank statements first off and see if he used his card to pay for anything that day which could prove his location.
And then check Google timeline-it’s pretty damned accurate.

As the Defendant he can request that it's transferred to his home court when he files the allocation questionnaire. She'll need to prove her claim, which she can't. Try not to worry.

So she claims 12k worth of damage was caused to her car and she didn’t get it fixed ?! She drive around with what was essentially a written off car ? Plus the police weren’t notified either ?
pull the other one ! She’s a scammy chancer .. the whole thing stinks .. I’d follow the advice above re making sure your DH files his defence etc and personally if this goes to court , your scammer won’t fair well

The document has come directly from the court. It says more than £10k and less than £15k.
it says correspondence was sent to us but no response was received. we haven’t had any correspondence. The insurers were dealing with it and they advised if we did receive anything not to respond.

It says HM court and tribunals service - specified money claim. It comes with a lot of forms to fill out around dh’s income. We have an email from AA (our insurer) saying the claim was closed because they couldn’t get any response from the third party solicitors and the claim was removed from dh’s insurance.

They are seeking to claim a reduction in vehicle’s value due to damage of £11825
plus interest.

We have car tracking from the day showing DH was here at 9am because he dropped our child to school. He did no other journeys that day - he’s already sent that to the insurance company. His tracking was logged to his phone.

https://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/ask-the-police/question/Q1085

All your updates about her make it sound bogus AF.

DO NOT fill in any forms or provide other info until you have confirmed with the court service that it is actually genuine. And definitely don't use any contact details from the letter.

it also states that it is the car not the driver. So even proving DH was here does not prove his car was here.

Surely the onus is on them to prove the car was there, not on you to prove it wasn't, if they don't have that how can it possibly stand?

Worth making the point that Solicitors are under a duty NOT to make vexatious claims or say anything incorrect in correspondence

This is a good example

https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2024/05/10/nadhim-zahawis-slapp-results-in-disciplinary-action-for-his-lawyer-why-it-happened-and-what-it-means/

I’ve googled their solicitor. They are employed through aviva- they have 113 one star reviews for being awful. Saying they do nothing and don’t respond. So maybe they haven’t replied to our insurers.

Op

last try as the questions i have raised are important

I have also noted that you are now saying it was the car that was there and not your OH

The important question is has your OH or car ever been to that area 300 miles away on or about that date and why, on what basis did your insurance close the case

What has your insurance stated as that's the first port of call for almost everyone!"!!!

No one else would have been driving his car - it was here on the drive.
the insurers advised us not to respond and we didn’t - we have that on an email paper trail.
We originally sent the car journey log which showed the car only made one journey that day, about two miles away. Dh’s boss sent a letter confirming he had been on multiple calls throughout the day from home.
Hes never been to that area.
The insurers closed it on the basis that there was no response from the claimant.