Small claims court for minor accident - any advice?

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slowster
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Re: Small claims court for minor accident - any advice?

Post by slowster »

Psamathe wrote: 16 May 2021, 8:53pmwhich would make No win No fee a non-starter (as the legal company could never claim their fees from the defendant).
Before this thread - viewtopic.php?f=1&t=140538 - I would have said you were right. The outcome in that case showed that the poster was absolutely right to use a solicitor, even though he had to pay them a percentage of his award as their fee.
PH
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Re: Small claims court for minor accident - any advice?

Post by PH »

SFWR wrote: 16 May 2021, 2:43pm Once I have their details, would I contact the insurers with what I have sent him (details, amount, receipts, any proof) and ask for the £200?
I simply emailed them saying I had a claim against a policy holder, with the policyholders name, and asked how to proceed. I got a reply back with a form to fill in.
If your claim is purely for the material loss, do that. As others have said, if there's an element of personal injury, get legal advice.
Pete Owens
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Re: Small claims court for minor accident - any advice?

Post by Pete Owens »

If your claim is for £200 then you really wouldn't want to get solicitors involved - the costs will dwarf the claim and if they settle out of court you will have to pay them.

Also if the driver had any sense they would have settled the claim without involving their insurer. Even if they didn't have an excess the loss of no claims bonus will end up costing them far more than £200 over the next few years.

The insurers on the other hand are likely to dispute a claim for whiplash type injuries. A few years ago these got a bit of a bad name - since there is no physical evidence they tended to feature in an extraordinarily high number of cases so the government has made it more difficult to clam. Worth reading this:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... 0injuries.
Postboxer
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Re: Small claims court for minor accident - any advice?

Post by Postboxer »

Seems unlikely the insurers would bother disputing such a small claim too much. Claim from them, I doubt it needs to go to small claims but if it does, they'll pay up. If you don't have the vehicle details, I assume the police would have them as they contacted the driver. I doubt the driver would have informed their insurer at the time, which doesn't leave them in the best position if they were to dispute liability.
SFWR
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Re: Small claims court for minor accident - any advice?

Post by SFWR »

Thank you everybody for your further helpful comments. Sorry I have been a bit snowed under with work hence not replying but I'm going to go down the small claim at a county court route (thanks for the terminology clarification). First I'll send a letter stating intention and send recorded so there is evidence, wait for that short timeframe to pass for him to pay (he won't), then fill in the paperwork. Keep your fingers crossed for me. I'll let you know the outcome in a few weeks/months 🤞🏽
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chris_suffolk
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Re: Small claims court for minor accident - any advice?

Post by chris_suffolk »

Speak to his insurers, he is required to have notified them of an accident. If he hasn't. they won't be best pleased. if he has they will no doubt settle the claim very quickly. Either way you should get a prompt payout without the stress and timescales of going through the courts, which (from what I've heard) are months if not years behind schedule.

I got hit some time ago, and the driver didn't inform his insurers. When I spoke to them, they admitted liabilty on the spot and paid out for my bike and clothing within a week.
fastpedaller
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Re: Small claims court for minor accident - any advice?

Post by fastpedaller »

Good advice from Chris above. Be aware that you may win in small claims court, but if the driver's unlikely to reimburse you before it goes to court, he may well do the same afterwards - this will then be a costly process to get him to pay! Go the insurance route, as it's worth trying before anything else and will most likely be settled quickly.
Bonefishblues
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Re: Small claims court for minor accident - any advice?

Post by Bonefishblues »

OP was given that advice early thread, so I'm wondering why the County Court route is still favoured by them?
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