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.

why have you not told the insurance to act on it as its their or the thrid parties faculty

has that car your oh been 300 miles up that way on or about that date??

We did originally and they closed it.
We’ve now had a letter from the court.

we have gone back to our insurer’s but I just wondered if anyone else had experience similar circumstances or had advice.

No, he’s never been there. We have her address and the location of the alleged crash and it’s on a massive housing estate.

Could it have been the person who had the car after him and she's fiddled the date of the accident which is why it's ended up with you?

fair enough

personally as you have evidence re your insurance ex=cahnges and they close - plus you gave them proof at the time the car was at your address etc - let the insurance deal with it - get a new reference number etc and a name to help you - they will ask you to forward the papers etc and keep in regular contact

if we received something like that - initially we'd be worried but after a quick call to the insurance co and as we would have given evidence at the time it was all a load of tosh - we'd not be worried

importantly danger to that extent and claimed hit and run will have a crime number and the insurance will be aware -unless the claimant failed to respond to all contacts by your insurance -

IMO you have nothing to worry about as your ins was looking into and thankfully your provided evidence at the time your oh was at x and the car was also at x - so no case - but I can imagine the initially worry etc

bottom line leave it to your insurance unless you want to spend money on a solicitor but I am not sure what they can do

btw what evidence did you provide that OH was at home as well as car?

BTW - most likely it was a cloned numberplate that had the accident it happens

12k worth of damage woulnt that be a rightoff

sound slke someones trying it on

its either an error or she just trying to get money-up to her to prove it was your car

I'm sure someone will already have given this advice, but what he needs to do is to notify his insurer at the time of the alleged accident that he's received a claim and then he must pass it all over to them. They will deal with it.

If he tries to do anything himself he might risk breaking the T&Cs of his insurance which will almost certainly say the he must notify them immediately of any claim and pass management of the claim over to them.

Obviously he will need to cooperate with the insurance company but this is their problem - not his. He won't need a solicitor as his insurer will provide all the help he needs. This is why you pay for insurance in the first place

This sounds like a scam. If her car was damaged to the amount of £12,000 and the other driver fled the scene surely she would have contacted the police. It's even stranger that she didn't get it repaired. What damage was there to her car?

If you can prove he was near home at 9am, and work have confirmed he was in meetings that day, how can he have got 300 miles away? I’m a bit confused.

Phone the court tomorrow to check if its genuine.

You do need to respond to court papers but also consult your car insurers regarding this. Don't ignore it as they might win my default otherwise!

You have more than enough evidence to show it wasn't your DH so just present that if you need to.

Also reckon this is a scam. Even if it was a cloned number plate, you would have expected there to have been a police report at the time.

You almost certainly do not have anything to worry about, but I do get the anxiety it is causing.

As much as creating your own defence, what do you know about her?

If you have her name and address, could you find her on social media? Are there pictures of the allegedly damaged car? Are there photos of it from after the crash showing no damage? Has she commented online before about coming into money through a claim? Does she have a profession that has requirements for a high degree of trustworthiness? Something that would require a criminal background check? Something that a fraud conviction would result in her being fired?

I also agree with those who say contact the police, there could be a pattern of behavior where you aren't the first person who has been pursed like this.

A little bit of offence might strengthen your defence. 😉

My husband had something like this, the man tried to get him to settle out of court in the end, my husband had done nothing, it was very odd. He told the man he was going to the police in the end, and he did. We heard no more.

let your insurer handle it, and beware an attempt to settle may come through.

You mentioned he's had several cars since then. When he sold or traded that car, there should be documentation or a witness to indicate it wasn't damaged.

Google Maps has records of your journeys if you used it, and you can go in your history and will tell you where you were on certain dates, for how long.

I'm not sure if it records your location on there from GPS, just if you used the app to navigate.
Worth a shot, I used it to confirm where i was on a certain date.

Check your phone location on that day ? Any photos or similar ? Any card spending , any emails where the IP can be traced ?

@Grainyawaydays - I'd suggest you put to one side the suggestions to contact the police, or to call the court to see if the claim is genuine, or to start looking into it yourselves. No doubt they're well-intentioned suggestions but I'd be concerned that they might compromise your husband's insurance cover.

ALL that your husband needs to do at this stage is (1) to inform whoever was his insurer at the time of this alleged accident that he's received a claim, and (2) pass ALL current and future correspondence relating to this claim to his insurer at the time. (It might be the same insurer that he has now or it might not. you haven't said).

He doesn't need a lawyer, he doesn't need to start investigating it himself and he doesn't need to meddle in his insurer's handling of the claim. (They are professionals and don't like paying out fake claims. They are experts at recognising and investigating them - you and your husband are not. Don't jeapordise the insurance cover by doing anything more than letting the insurance company deal with ALL of it).

Your husband must have been paying insurance premiums for years - it's exactly this service he was paying for. Let the insurer deal with it and don't interfere at all.

NB - You and your husband are no doubt concerned that the claim is issued against him personally. If he is the person that the claimant is alleging caused the alleged accident then of course he's the person being sued. But the whole point of a motor insurance policy is that if you - personally - get sued, then your insurer steps in to defend the claim on your behalf and you don't need to stress out about it. That's what an insurance policy is. What you don't do is not inform your insurer, lose the case, and then try to claim on your insurance. You have to let them deal with it from the outset

Wouldn't at least some of those meetings be minuted or even recorded?

I don't think this claim is going to go anywhere. The claimant is going to have to say exactly when the accident is supposed to have happened and to give a description of the driver involved, in addition to explaining what damage was allegedly done and why she didn't get it repaired. She's clearly reluctant to do that because she knows that will disprove her case, but she will have no choice. You should also look into getting the case transferred to your local court, the inconvenience and expense of that alone may well put her off.

If it is a money claim do not just ignore this. You need to file the acknowledgement of service. Then a defence. If you don't within the relevant deadlines she could request judgment.

Payslips? A log with work of him logging onto his computer from home?

Did you happen to have that car MOT’d at any point, it will show mileage done on there.

I have google timeline and it logs where I’ve been, not sure if this would be proof enough?

Maybe look at your whole week, places you’ve been or paid by card/withdrawing money, filling up with fuel, showing how it would be impossible to drive that far from your location and make it there/back in the possible timeframe.

Your insurer should just defend the proceedings for you. I wouldn’t worry. Just make sure they get all the docs from you and respond in time.

given they already know and investigated - did they inspect DH’s car at the time? Which presumably had no damage? Because that will be very useful evidence all by itself that your car didn’t cause £12k worth of damage!

if this is just the claim form, it won’t have been allocated to a track yet - in other words the court hasn’t decided whether it will be a small claim (or fast track). The limit for the small claims track is £10k, but frankly things that are just over get allocated to the small claims track all the time. But all of that is just technical stuff, that you don’t need to worry about - because your insurer should instruct a solicitor to defend it. And if by some bizarre twist you lose, your insurer will pick up the tab.

Insurance worker here.

This unfortunately is very common. I think in this situation it's just a case of mistaken identity likely 1 digit being wrong in the registration. If it was cloning there would be other evidence like parking fines or tolls not paid.

In this case it seems that it's the claimant solicitors being utterly useless. You have good evidence to show it wasn't your DH they have done nothing for 3 years and as it's coming up to limitation they've issued proceedings on the only details they had. They would've 100% got your address from the DVLA.

Make sure you are in constant updates with your insurers they will appoint a solicitor to defend it. Ask them to confirm a defence has been submitted hopefully you will have contact with the actual solicitor as well. I feel like it should be easy one to resolve but then saying that it shouldn't have got this far!

Last year DH was checking something on his car insurance docs online and discovered that there was a claim against him. He knew nothing about it and had not been contacted by insurance comp to discuss. Luckily, the ‘supposed’ crash had taken place in previous 2 weeks, over 100 miles from our home, when DH was working from home, in an area he had never been. Luckily, we have very good CCTV which saved data for 2 weeks and this showed that car had not left drive all day. Turns out name given was not his, and, although, it was our car’s reg, it was wrong vehicle make and colour. Insurance comp were useless. DH just told them to tell claimant we would see them in court. Never heard from them again.

I worked doing personal injury law for several years and to me this sounds like a scam. Unless the other driver recorded the registration incorrectly.

My elderly parents were sent a court summons as their postman claimed he had hurt his hand while putting post through their letterbox and had to have 6 months off work. They clearly remember the day in question, the postman never knocked on their door , nor was there any blood!

Check your house insurance and see if you have legal expenses cover. Annoying as it may seem you may have to employ a solicitor to deal with the claim.

12k of damage , trying it on....I think insurance companies right off the car if the cost to repair is over half the cars value it will be written off....So wondering if the aggrieved party was insured fully comprehensive, & if so her insurance would have paid her out. Your husband does need a solicitor and say if he was trying to get away with it, why would he even bother to attend court. There are lots of unsavoury people about who will go to great lengths to make money....in other words, scum, pond life.
I really hope it's all sorted soon and the truth will prevail. Good luck