Being Summoned to The Magistrates Court for Car Crash

LTekon on 01/05/2020 - 15:13

Hi there,

I am posting this on behalf of a family member who we will name for now 'Adam'. Please note I am not fully there with the details and only asking for general guidance.

Adam was involved in a rear-end collision a few months ago where, due to his own 100% fault, he ended up crashing into a car in front which crashed forward into another car. Adam's insurance has been settling with the driver immediately in front and Adam has paid for the excess and other associated costs with it. There has been no recent news on the incident for a while now.

Just today, the owner of the car directly in front of the car immediately hit has shown up to Adam's doorstep with a summons to the magistrates' court for the value of 15k+.

What would be the next step here? Adam's understanding is that the insurance would have dealt with the damages. Should Adam contact his insurance? A lawyer? Really unsure about what happens next or why the person is bringing the summons directly to Adam.

Automotive

Comments

  • kingsville on 01/05/2020 - 15:15
    +3

    please tell me 'Adam' has comprehensive car insurance…

    • Tekon on 01/05/2020 - 15:16
      +3

      Adam does have comprehensive car insurance. They have paid for the damages to the vehicle immediately in front. We are just unsure why the person is approaching Adam directly instead of the insurance company.

      • 87percent on 01/05/2020 - 15:17
        +17

        get adam's insurance to handle it.. thats what you pay them for

        • Tekon on 01/05/2020 - 15:19

          Sounds like a plan. Do you or anyone else know if there might be a situation where the insurance may not cover this despite being paid for comprehensive insurance?

          • Godric on 01/05/2020 - 15:20
            +3

            @Tekon: Yeah, the insurer would know.

          • websterp on 01/05/2020 - 15:25
            +7

            @Tekon: I was in a similar situation few years ago. Received a claim letter by post demanding me to pay for a hire car the other party used while theirs was getting repaired. Rung my insurance and their advice was to ignore it as they have handled all related claims and asked me to email a copy just for their records which I did. That was the end of that matter.

            Ring Adam's insurance and explain this and show them the summons letter and they will tell him what to do. If for whatever reason your Adam's insurance refused to settle the claims he should have been notified by now. Either way ring insurance ASAP.

    • life is suffering on 08/01/2021 - 19:58

      what happens when they have third party only ?

  • tsunamisurfer on 01/05/2020 - 15:24
    +12

    Why has this escalated to the courts so suddenly?

    Hasn't there been communications or correspondences between you Adam and Party C before this?

    • Ozpit on 02/05/2020 - 11:01
      +1

      I don’t think OP is telling the full story. Something’s not right. I wonder if Adam’s gf Eve is somehow involved? It wouldn’t be the first time those two have got up to shenanigans.

    • nwa on 04/05/2020 - 08:41

      Knew someone went through similar, I think the missing bit was Adam must have been served with a letter of demand and he may have advised his insurance company who may have dealt with it number of ways either ignoring it as a shakedown attempt or failing to come to agreement. Now he will advise his insurance company again who may be more keen to settle it or represent Adam in Court.

  • mbck on 01/05/2020 - 15:32
    +2

    You have comprehensive, so all good. Refer back to insurance.

    Well not all good, your premium will go up, but that's a lot better than tens of thousands…

    Sorry Adam

  • Ughhh on 01/05/2020 - 15:36
    +1

    You gave your details to the car Infront, but did you give it to the said party?
    There's no reason for them to contact you if they had your claim number.

  • kahn on 01/05/2020 - 16:01
    +1

    This sort of thing always seems to happen to Adam.

  • saintpotter on 01/05/2020 - 16:05
    +1

    Bloody Adam.

  • onetwothreefour on 01/05/2020 - 16:17

    It's always Adam!

  • Davo1111 on 01/05/2020 - 16:23

    Get adam to call the insurer, and send them the summons

  • Davo1111 on 01/05/2020 - 16:24

    Adam does have comprehensive car insurance.

    thank christ.

    • [Deactivated] on 01/05/2020 - 16:49
      +8

      No Adam was around several thousand uears before Christ

  • plmko on 01/05/2020 - 16:28

    Just means his insurance has disagreed with the settlement or the other party is trying bluff their way to higher settlement.

    Either case only time wasting is at risk

  • TheBilly on 01/05/2020 - 16:36
    +5

    I am suspecting that the guy Adam hit did not have insurance and is in some kind of issue with the car that he hit (second car from Adam). As a result he is trying to put the repair cost on Adam and going to claim via the courts stating that if Adam did not hit him, he would not have hit the car in front and the force propelled him forward. Still does not change the fact that this should be directed to Adams insurance company. Generally speaking, from my limited understanding everyone is responsible for the car in front of them i.e. Adam responsible for the car in front of him, then that guy in front of him etc. etc.

    • Ozpit on 02/05/2020 - 09:58

      Reminds me of an accident I had several years ago. The car in front of me ran into the back of a car in front of them. I then ran into the back of the car in front of me, which further impacted (albeit slight) on the car in front of it. The first two cars had no insurance whatsoever, whereas I had comprehensive insurance. I fully accepted the rear-end damages to the car I hit and fully explained the accident details to my insurer. At the accident scene, the driver I hit totally blamed the accident on the driver of the car he hit because that driver jumped lanes and immediately slammed on his brakes. However, later on the drivers of the two cars in front of me put their heads together (to ensure all damages to their cars would be fixed at no cost to them) and claimed that I hit the car in front of me which pushed that car into the car in front of it. I later found out that my insurer accepted their version. It didn’t make any difference to me because it didn’t cost me any more than what I’d already paid, ie, my excess plus loss of no claim bonus.

      • TheBilly on 02/05/2020 - 19:10

        Unfortunately 2 against 1 in terms of eye witness. But either way you were insured, imagine if you weren't and they both did that.

  • Tekon on 01/05/2020 - 16:38

    Really appreciate everyone's replies. You guys are brilliant. The next step is to talk to the insurer and we will see what happens from there.

    Cheers!

  • Muzeeb on 01/05/2020 - 16:41

    Insurance will patch adam

    • xuqi on 01/05/2020 - 16:45

      Is 'patch' a euphemism? Insurance generally like to bend things.

      • whooah1979 on 01/05/2020 - 19:44

        Patch Adams M.D.

  • brendanm on 01/05/2020 - 16:47

    You Adam needs to contact his insurance company. They will sort it out.

  • sraymond on 01/05/2020 - 17:16
    +3

    Still need an MS paint diagram.

    • Davo1111 on 01/05/2020 - 17:46

      this guy ozbargains

  • Randxyz123 on 01/05/2020 - 19:23

    Send directly to "Adam"'s insurance. DO NOT talk to the plaintiff. If they try to talk to "Adam" send them a text e.g. "Please talk to my insurer xyz, claim 12345".

    Sounds like "Adam's" insurance has covered one car but not the other and they don't have insurance.

  • crashloaded on 01/05/2020 - 21:58
    -1

    What's the details of the claim on the application? 15k for what? Car damage?

    Whatever you do file a notice of intention to defend asap.

  • HeWhoKnows on 02/05/2020 - 09:31
    -4

    Adam should be posting here
    NOT OP

    Id suggest OP stays right out of this

    TOTAL WASTE OF EVERYONES TIME!

    • Tekon on 02/05/2020 - 14:36
      +1

      Adam does not have the best English skills so I was just helping out. Appreciate your concern, though.

  • MontyMacaw on 02/05/2020 - 10:27
    -1

    The other party probably for some advice from Ozbargain too. It’s clearly the insurance company’s job. Failing that I wouldn’t turn up to court because I would claim I thought they were scamming me and it would probably go away once the court saw the details. Of later I was forced to go I’d have paperwork from the insurance company explaining why the claim was not paid. If they don’t have to pay then neither do you would be my best guess. Try and keep on good terms with the other party - if you can. No need to light fires as it just causes stress. Logic says it will sort itself out.

    • crashloaded on 02/05/2020 - 13:34

      If you've been served and a hearing date is set, you definitely should turn up to court, court can rule against you in your absence, I'd rather defend myself. If you are named personally on the application it's up to you to defend, not the insurer.

      • MontyMacaw on 02/05/2020 - 20:40

        I have to admit I’ve never been served as I have been able to avoid it. I overlooked that in my reply. If you have been officially served I think that would have to be by an officer of the court but I may be wrong. So let’s assume you have then you turn up and ask for an adjournment to sort out with the insurance company. More than once if possible or adjourn for some other reason like a death in the family or sickness - whatever. It will stretch it out for possibly a year or more. If that fails I always believe in taking the court process for as long as you can. They may just give up. In other words be like an insurance company and spin the thing out as long as you can so that when or IF it finally comes before a judge that the history is so old that you can bring into doubt the evidence of the complainant when you ask questions about his recollection of the event, who YOU are, which car YOU were in and what the weather was like, road conditions, speed, what colour were all the cars, what colour was your car, did you get a fine for your actions - can you see where I’m going with this? You cast as much doubt on the other witness being the plaintiff the court may think there is reasonable doubt about your liability or even if it was you that caused the accident, or were even there. If you don’t give any evidence and you don’t have to it is up to the plaintiff to PROVE beyond doubt any liability on your part. And no I’m not just being clever here (maybe a little). I once made a project of fighting driving tickets by using similar tactics - just to see how far I could go. I got off 5 in a row and 2 of them were camera tickets. The law and the court is a realm to be exploited by anyone with the know how and balls to do it. Happy to share my experience with other OzB’s.

        • crashloaded on 02/05/2020 - 22:33
          +1

          Oh I totally agree with you. You would only have to get before a judge or even a mediator to put forward that this is a matter for the insurance company if OP has comprehensive insurance. I imagine the mediator would suggest the person not continue with the claim at that point.

  • peteru on 02/05/2020 - 18:29
    +1

    First thing Adam should do is to notify the insurer that handled this case for him previously. They will provide instructions. It is important to not say anything to the other party that they could possibly present in court as evidence to be used against Adam or his insurer.

    The insurer will have expertise in this as it is part of their core business. If Adam tries to handle this on his own, he may in fact cause more harm and his insurer may not be able or willing to help.

    • MontyMacaw on 03/05/2020 - 06:33

      Great advice. Insurance companies tell you NEVER to admit liability. Just because you think you are at fault there could be other factors you are not aware of at the time and you will not be clear calm and collected at the time. Also you shouldn’t allow other parties to have any influence over your thinking. It’s basic law 101.

  • kaleidoscope on 09/01/2021 - 15:01

    given ‘adam’ has comprehensive, ignore and let insurance handle it. If other party keeps bothering report to the local cops.

    • Tnetennba on 09/01/2021 - 15:09
      +1

      This thread is 8 months old, not sure why you commented lol

      • kaleidoscope on 09/01/2021 - 15:20

        i’m from future and it’s still going on with adam 😃 and for any one with similar problem.

        • Tnetennba on 09/01/2021 - 15:26

          Well in that case, I think the advice should be more general. It wouldn't matter if OP had comprehensive or just third party property insurance, both would cover him for the damage to the other car and he should kindly pass this info on to his insurer and tell the other party to GTFO.

  • Tekon on 09/01/2021 - 16:52
    +6

    For those looking for an update -

    Adam handed over the summons to insurance and never heard anything about it ever again.

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