Help - advice please re car accident claim and going to court !!

[thirtysomething]

I had a car accident 5 months ago where I went into the back of a motorcycle who came up on my right and swerved in front of me and then stopped at amber traffic lights - obviously i went into the back of him. At the scene he was very angry but we swapped info etc. I handed over to the insurance company to deal with and got the car mended (front bumper panel replacing etc)

The insurance company have written to me saying that his insurance company won't accept a 50/50 claim and want me to go to court. I had assumed it would be a straightforward case of me being liable as technically i went into the back of him - I was resigned to this and quite franly wanted to put it all behind me as it freaked me out at the time.

DP thinks it's just a tactic and I won't actually have to go to court - what do you think? I really don't want to as a) it'll give me nightmares again and the details are very sketchy now and b) he's a big guy and has my address etc

Any advice v welcome!!

I wouldn't worry. It is expensive to go to court and the insurance company will want to avoid it all costs.

IMO Its a tactic by your insurance to try and lessen the payment they have to make by suggesting that the biker was partly to blame.

In my experience,if you contact your insurers in writing and tell them that whilst of course you will comply with policy conditions and assist them in every way,your recollection of events is hazy and you are now not 100% certain of events and are concerned about attending court, they will prob just pay the other person's claim.

If they decide to go to court, they will usually send some one out to take a statement from you and ask their investigator's view as to whether you would make a good witness. They will not risk all the costs of the thing going to court unless they are pretty certain they will win or the case is worth a huge amount. After all,they have already conceded 50% of the liability in any event.

I would drop them a line and forget about it!